


ubi mors sequitur (when death follows)

by burdened_with_glorious_hunters



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst and Feels, Australia, Banter, Believer Ryan Bergara, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Car Accidents, Demons, Getting to Know Each Other, Ghosts, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day AU, Hitchhiking, I wrote this on a whim, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Making Out, Not Beta Read, POV Alternating, Psychological Horror, Road Trips (Kinda), Scared Ryan Bergara, Skeptic Shane Madej, Strangers to Lovers, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, Time Loop, australian outback, poor Ryan thinks he's going insane, slight body horror, sorry if this is messy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-01 05:35:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17238377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burdened_with_glorious_hunters/pseuds/burdened_with_glorious_hunters
Summary: After Ryan’s car breaks down on a dirt road in the Australian Outback after recording an episode of unsolved he luckily runs into a handsome stranger by the name of Shane who offers to give him a ride to the closest town.Although after the indescribable  horrors Ryan has faced while on this road, can this man be trusted or is there something more behind his charming smile and warm brown eyes?---Shane Madej has been stuck in an endless time-loop, reliving the same moment over and over, that is until he runs into a stranger by the name of Ryan Bergara, a tourist who's car has broken down... can Ryan be the key to breaking the loop Shane's stuck in?





	1. prologue (Ryan's perspective)

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: This work is purely a work of fiction and is for entertainment purposes only. I do not own Buzzfeed Unsolved. The relationships in this work are fictional and I hold the upmost respect for Ryan and Shane’s real life partners and relationships. I also respect any real life people mentioned in this work. Although, please note that the other locations such as “Arltunga” and “Alice Springs” and the “Northern Territory” are real places in Australia. 
> 
> The road “Ghost-Gum Road” and the small town I described at the beginning of the work are places that I made up… I did so, as not to offend anyone. Everything else in this work such as the creatures or rumours spoken about are also made up by me… 
> 
> NOTES: So, I thought I’d try something a little new… I've never done time-travel/time-loops or psychological/horror themed works before so sorry if it’s a bit confusing or tame on the gore and creepiness. Just a warning tho, I do reference a car accident and describe injuries resulting from the accident, so if anyone would like to avoid anything like that then this fic isn’t for you. 
> 
> Anyway, Onto the Fic!

 

_If he’d known what he were getting himself into that day, perhaps he wouldn’t have ever gone to explore that ghost town location in the middle of the Australian Outback for the latest episode of Unsolved._

_If he had known what happened later on he would have agreed to go in the car with T.J and the rest of the crew, not by himself._

_If he had known what laid ahead of him he would have listened to the countless warnings and turned around but he just couldn’t say no when his curiosity reared it’s head._

_Perhaps he shouldn’t have let himself be drawn to that stranger and his warm brown eyes…_

_He should have._

_It wouldn’t have ended the way it did if he just done what he’d been told, avoided that location and joined his team as if he weren’t some recluse but he did._

_Look where that got him._


	2. following the flight of the stars

The warm afternoon sun beat down on Ryan Bergara as he pulled up in the closest free parking spot in the small pit-stop of a town . 

Cutting the engine Ryan spared a glance towards the car pulling in next to his and was met with the familiar faces of T.J and Devon as the two exited the car along with a few other members of Buzzfeed Ryan didn’t really know all that well.

“we’re going to have a look around town… why don’t you ask for directions?” T.J stated as Ryan walked over to join the little group.

Opening his mouth to argue, Ryan caught the other man’s stern stare and the opposition died in his throat. “uh- sure… meet you back here” the smaller man agreed reluctantly, receiving a reassuring pat on the back as Devon passed him, walking off to God-knows-where. 

So that was how Ryan found himself inside the small convenience store run by a local indigenous woman. Her dark hair was streaked with grey, curling free around her shoulders as she stood by a tinny fan that seemed to working a hundred miles per hour to stave away the humidity of the region.  

As he regarded the woman before him, he gauged her friendly looking face, figuring that she wouldn’t chew him out for asking directions. “hello… uh- my friends and I don’t really know the area too well, so I was wondering if you happen to know where road 8 is?” At the woman’s narrowed eyes he continued the rest of his explanation in a rush. “I-Im going out there with some friends to explore the Arltunga Historic Reserve tonight but i’m not sure how to get onto road 8 to get there… all I need to know is which road to get on and I will be out of here” 

The indigenous woman behind the counter gave him a once over all but sizing him up as she did so. “road 8?” She questioned. 

“yes” 

Her kind face grew pinched as she levelled him a look. “there’s only one road you can take to get to that road and it’s a dangerous road to travel boy” she warned. “even locals try to avoid that road at night… have been for generations” 

The smaller man raised a brow at the comment. “what do you mean?” 

“only the naive or the stupid go along Ghost-Gum Road” she informed, voice stern. “people have avoided that road for generations, for that land is infested with a dark evil spirit” 

“spirit? What is it like?” Ryan eyes lit up in curiosity, if he was lucky perhaps he’d see this rumoured spirit. 

“i have not seen it but other’s in my family have. From what I have heard it takes many forms… some speak of a shadowy creature that lurks in the bushland, others say it takes the form of a man luring people into the bush before it devours them” she paused. “many before you have not taken my advice and died on that cursed road… about twenty years ago a man went out exploring to that same house and died in a horrific car accident when he swerved off that road to avoid a kangaroo. I don’t want to see another young man die because they didn’t believe my warnings… do you really want to take that road now, boy?” 

“i do… I promise I will be careful, Ma’am” Ryan replied, taking in the saddened expression behind the kind woman’s face. “but I need to go along this road for I hunt these types of creatures for my job in order to provide evidence for the supernatural” 

The woman gave him a disapproving look before shaking her head in defeat. “that is a dangerous game to play” she mused before heaving a dejected sigh. “if you will not take my warning then I shall at least plot the safest routes on the map… give me your map, son” she demanded, holding out an aged hand towards Ryan. 

Rifling through his backpack, he handed over his map which the woman highlighted and circled the correct route to road 8 as he had requested. “Once you have fully passed through Ghost-Gum Road, then you can turn onto the main road which is marked as Road 87… follow that straight and you will find yourself at Road 8 which leads directly into Arltunga Reserve” she handed him back the map and caught his eye as she did so. “i wish you the best of luck. I can only hope that you heed my warnings”

Unsure how to respond, Ryan nodded sending the woman a thankful smile as he gathered his things before returning back outside the store. 

Stepping outside Ryan was meet with a wall of humidity, even with the splashes of red colouring the evening sky it was still incredibly warm in this region. Especially during this time of the year in early January as it was around the peak of Summertime in Australia. 

His timing was almost perfect for as he turned to walk back the group’s rent-cars he could see the rest of the crew making their way back to the cars as well. 

“find the directions?” Devon asked, sending him a faint smile as they re-grouped. 

Turning to face her, Ryan nodded. “yeah I did. I even got the route explained to me by a local” 

“so give us the run down on this place we’re driving out to” T.J grumbled, cutting into their conversation. The heat of the region had made the stoic man lean a bit more towards annoyance than neutrality on filming the latest episode. 

“the old Arltunga ghost town” Ryan replied easily, folding the map more nearly in his hands as he informed the others of the location they were going to. “it’s located a few miles from here… the woman I talked to in the convenience store highlighted the best route to get to the reserve” 

“let me have a look” the older man demanded, holding out his hand towards Ryan expectantly. 

Holding back a sigh Ryan did as asked, watching as his work folding the map be ruined as the crew all observed the route highlighted. 

“have we got all we need?” One of the crew that Ryan didn’t know asked, their strawberry blond hair falling into their eyes with the warm breeze that swept through small town. 

“should be… might need to take two cars though, thanks to the equipment needed” Ryan mused with a contemplating look to the two parked rent-cars. 

“well. I’m not driving” Devon huffed and the other buzzfeed employees that Ryan did know also expressed their sentiment loudly. 

T.J swore audibly, knowing he had to drive, sending a heated glare to the crew as they began to get into their rent-car. After a pause he turned his attention back to Ryan, handing him back the map. “looks like you’ll be driving the other one” 

“looks like it” Ryan sighed, gripping the paper in his hand as he turned his gaze to the empty rent-car parked next to the other’s. 

Faintly, he was aware of T.J clapping him on the shoulder as he passed by but Ryan was more focused on why he felt that something was missing as he looked at the empty passenger seat of his rent-car. The crew had made sure that the equipment was packed evenly between the two cars so it was nearly impossible to have forgotten something to film the next episode. Shaking his head to rid himself of the though Ryan made his way over, climbing into the driver’s seat silently as he threw the paper map onto the passenger seat beside him. 

Engine rumbling, Ryan followed the other’s car out of the small town as pink began to bleed into blue in the vast sky above them as the group headed out to their next location of Arltunga as the barest hint of stars beginning to appear above them. Driving before Ryan’s rent-car was the rest of the team, the red glow of the car’s rear-light a constant reminder of their next location. He had previously given the other’s the run down on the next location yesterday, telling them how he envisioned the episode to look like as he explores the ruins and converses with ant spirits. 

Before him, the indicator light from the car containing the crew was blinking an orange beacon as they soon merged on Road 87. The road itself seeming to stretch for miles ahead of them with only faint curves or crests in which the group had to drive along. By Ryan’s side on the passenger seat sat the highlighted map for the rest of the group had a GPS in their rent-car but Ryan’s didn’t. Although that fact didn’t bother him for he was always better at using paper maps than digital ones. 

Road 87 was a dark grey concrete highway which was permanently stained with an orange hue thanks to the constant erosion of soils that painted the region. Ryan supposed it was this that generated the region to have the colloquial name of ‘Red Centre’ thanks to the iron rich soil which created the blood-red soil. The road stretched for miles with only the barest hints of a curve of crest. At this time in the afternoon there was a few cars which passed theirs on the other side of the highway, the white of the headlights beginning to slide into a tinge to bright as the sky continued to grow darker and darker above them. 

It was around 20 miles from Road 8 that an off road path caught Ryan’s eye. Unlike this road, the off-shoot road was a dirt road with clear grooves from tires cutting a distinguished path into the red soil. As he passed the spot, a sign marked ‘ _Ghost Gum Road_ ’ caught his eye, the sign faded to an mint-green hue rather than the stark green other signs in the area had. As he peered down the road, all he could see was a vast expanse pf road much like his did with patches of native plants and Eucalyptus gum-trees along the path. Other than this, he could see nothing off about it for the road looked like any other one he had seen or driven along this journey. 

The radio crackled before him but Ryan paid no mind to the words the singer was crooning as he continued to drive. It was more of a white-noise to Ryan than actual listening, it was a way to fill the silence that seemed to follow him. So instead the radio gave a constant drone of noise, much like what he’d imagine his time would be like if he filmed Unsolved with a partner rather than solo. 

He wondered about it sometimes, he felt so conflicted after Brent dropped out from being co-host of Unsolved. No-one else Ryan encounter seemed to fit the bill, seemed to match his humour and lift the show to it’s proper height. So, as a result Ryan decided to do the show himself and people seemed to like it so far, many other believer’s like him enjoyed his integrity and authenticity he had with every episode, especially with his Supernatural seasons. Ryan believed it was this, people knowing all the footage and evidence he found was real and in no way faked, which lead to the show becoming as popular as it is despite not having a co-host. 

It was times like this as he traveled alone which allowed his mind, and Ryan would wonder which type of person his co-host could have been. Perhaps another believer? no, it would have to be skeptic. A skeptic who wouldn’t see himself as superior to Ryan just because he didn’t believe in the supernatural or aliens. He would hope that regardless of not understanding his view-point that they would respect it and see things from his point of view. Perhaps they would banter back with Ryan? Or make joked which would frustrate him? 

Maybe they’d even comfort him when he’d get freaked out from a haunted locations with a witty joke to keeping the atmosphere light. Perhaps when they stayed the night at haunted locations, the other’s presence would be a thing of comfort? A beacon of light when it felt like he was drowning in darkness. Ryan wasn’t sure what they would be like but all of the above sure seemed like someone he’d want his ideal co-host to be. Although, they would need to be a friend above all, someone he could reply on and banter with at the same time. 

Shaking his head, his thoughts returned to the present and the stretch of road before him just as a lone car passed his on the other side of the road. Sparing a glance to the time it was nearly 5:00pm, meaning that the turn off for the Reserve shouldn’t be to far away. Although it seemed his estimate was wrong as around an hour the team managed to finally diverge from the main road and onto Road 8, a drive-way styled road which lead to the Historic Reserve of Arltunga. 

His 4-wheeled drive, jolted as it made it’s way up the dirt road to the reserve, Ryan swaying slightly as his car crawled along the uneven terrain. Similarity before him, the rest of the crew continued further up the dirt-road their car jolting as it moved over rocks and soil as well. Casting a look outside his window Ryan could see the silhouetted outlines of the Arltunga ruins amongst the sandy soils pilled around them. As the crew made their way around the road to an alcove of sorts, the ruins became clear and clearer to see as they neared the reserve.

This close Ryan could see that the ruins were made of a sandstone brick type substance rather than the usual red-brick he imagined it to be. Although it was not just the ruins that he was desperate to see but to test if there were any supernatural entities in the region. It would not be unusual if there was, seeing as the reserve had a rich history of settlements and being a mining town. 

Turning his gaze forwards Ryan turned in time to see the rest of the crew get out of their car. Shutting off the engine Ryan did the same, helping to unload the various technology loaded into the back of his car. 

“looks like we’ve got a bit of time before night falls” Devon commented conversationally as made her way to Ryan’s side to help unload the car. 

Ryan spared a glance to the sky above them, traces of light still hung on despite the stars beginning to creep into the skies above them. “looks like it” 

She gave him a pointed look, “i can finish off getting this out… we’ve got a bit of time before filming, so you can do some last minute research or revising of notes if you want” 

The smaller man sent her a guilty smile. “am I that obvious?” 

Devon laughed the sound free of judgement. “no… I just know where your minds at after this many seasons” she pauses, mirth clear in her eyes. “now go! Before I force you too” 

“yes, mother” Ryan teases, turning to do just that as he collects his laptop and bundle of notes from his passenger seat. 

Walking a fair distance from the crew, Ryan found a small wooden bench and picnic table which would do as a desk for his last minute research. As the team around him continued setting up the equipment for the latest episode of Unsolved, Ryan couldn’t help but have his mind wonder to the the elderly woman’s words about the accident in the area but Ryan hadn’t seen anything on that when he was researching for the show. 

He firmly believed that it was incidents like that which could result in some supernatural activity because what other kind of death would result in someone haunting other than a road accident? Perhaps he could encounter the potential ghost of the man on his drive back to the hotel. 

Daylight was still hanging onto the sky above them, making Ryan have a hour or less to get some last minute research. Even though he should really make same extra notes for the episode at hand  the smaller man decided to look into the accident.  Funnily enough, as he skimmed over article after article he couldn’t receive any major reports of the incident. 

Frowning, Ryan decided to tackle the issue with another direction for perhaps the car accident would be recorded in the local gazette. It took a lot of digging into the various articles from the paper over the years until he reached an article from 1998. 

‘ _American Tourist Dies In Deadly Car Crash_ ’ the headline reads and his eyes drop to the story below with growing curiosity. 

‘ _This morning a shocking tragedy rocked the local community with the findings of a wrecked car amongst the eucalyptus trees of Ghost-Gum Road. The 32 year old man who was identified as;  (retracted name) through his license and wallet papers. The tourist’s wreck was found by a local cow farmer John Dennison around 5:45 am on the 1st_ _of January._ ’

‘ _The 32 year old was believed to have died on impact against the trees his 4 wheeled drive was found against. Police and other personal who arrived at the scene found skid marks which matched the vehicle and believe the incident to be an accidental occurrence. Forensic scientist have ruled out the use of drugs or alcohol being the cause of death as the man’s system had no traces of any illegal substances or blood alcohol readings._ ’

‘ _It has been proposed that the cause of death was due to an animal running onto the road before (retracted name) as well as sleep deprivation which could have resulted in the slow reflexes of the man. Evidence at the scene point to the animal culprit to be a kangaroo due to the wide swerve the man did to avoid the mammal as well as kangaroo dna samples found at the scene…_ ’

Ryan dismissed the rest of the article as it said nothing more of importance on the incident. It seemed that only local people from the town would know of the incident, seeming as there was no other account by any major news stations. Weirdly the fact that sticks in his mind is the fact that the name is redacted as if someone didn’t want people to know the name of the man who died.  

The sound of footfalls broke his attention from the article before him and looking up Ryan was greeted with the sight of Devon, one of the cameramen. “we’re ready to go when you are” she informs lightly, giving him a soft smile when he caught her eye.

Rubbing a hand over his face absently, he nodded in confirmation to let her know he heard her. “alright… let’s get this rolling” Ryan replied after a moment, moving to stand from the park-bench he’d occupied for the past hour. 

Devon stepped back to give him a wider berth to get out from the bench. Once he made his way to her side the pair walked towards where the rest of his team had set up the equipment they needed.  

The sky had lost all blue and pink and was overcome with the rich navy of night. It was a clear night above them with no clouds covering the stars and moon. This allowed for the team to have an easy time setting up the technology as well as gathering a few establishing shots for the editing team to incorporate when the episode is getting put together. 

“ready to go, Ryan?” T.J asked from his position behind a camera as Devon also went to man a separate camera beside the older man. 

At this Ryan had made his way to the yellow-bricked ruins of the reserve. “sure am” he called back to the other, making sure the shot of him before the ruins was in frame in the space behind him. 

“we’re rolling!” A call sounded faintly from somewhere before Ryan, the words nearly muffled by the distance. 

Masking his expression into a look of seriousness Ryan began his spiel of the location. “today on Unsolved: Supernatural, I will be exploring the Historic Reserve of Arltunga a deserted gold rush town in the Northern Territory of Australia. In order to give evidence into to the question, are ghosts real?” At the end of his introduction Ryan made sure to stare down the lens of the camera T.J was filming. 

“Arltunga is classed to have major historical significance as the town was the first major European settlement in Central Australia in the 1880s” he began his spiel, walking along the outskirts of the site. 

“The town was located 110km east of Alice Springs and 1610km from Darwin… so as a result Arltunga was only accessible by walking or riding alongside the Overland Telegraph Line from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs, then following the MacDonnell Ranges east to reach the quant little town” at this, Ryan continued closer to one of the old ruins of buildings, the camera panning as did so. 

“with the hight of the gold rush in1887, the newly built town was recorded to support up to 300 people who called the town home while hoping to strike their fortune of gold. The gold in the region was first observed by South Australian explorer, David Lindsay in 1887 as he trekked from Port Darwin to the coast of South Australia. As a result of his find, miners travelled to the area and Arltunga became the first major European settlement in Central Australia”

“The town was kept alive for a period of time after the initial gold rush when the South Australian Government built the Government Battery and Cyanide Works in 1898, although with the Battery's closure in 1916, the population in the region declined to 25 by 1933” He paused here, giving a moment to let the previous information to sink in before continuing.

“Arltunga reserve was nominated for heritage listing in 2008. Although, while the Government Battery and Cyanide Works site at Arltunga was successfully listed in 1995, the nomination for the rest of the reserve was unresolved. This was due to a native title claim in the area until 2014,  at this time it was during the second nomination the heritage listing was successful”

Once again he walks through the reserve, camera tracking him as he does so. “Today, in the Historic Reserve of Arltunga, there are only relics of an old police station and goal. This could be due to the dryness in the region which has managed to preserve many artefacts such as tin cans, bottles and parts of houses which allows an insight into how people lived here in the 1880s”

“this leads us to the potential hauntings of the area” Ryan announced, the camera tracking his movement as he walked to stand by the remains of the Police Station. 

“in my hands here, I have a piece of technology called the Spirit Box. This technology will allow any potential ghosts to converse with us through the radio frequencies” at this Ryan fiddled with the Spirit Box in his hands, right hand moving to get ready to turn on the equipment. “just a warning to anyone present, this thing will be a bit loud at the start until the radios stations are picked up on” 

At this the Sprit Box let out a screeching white noise, the noise grating before it dipped into a less obnoxious tone. 

“my name is Ryan Bergara… are there any spirits here with me right now?” He questioned into the night air, the spirit box’s static rising and falling in pitch in his hands.  

A few beats of silence pass as Ryan gives a look over the area. “alright… if anyone is here with me, would you be able say your name?” This time the Sprit Box let out a series of crackles, a few words coming out in unintqelible bursts. “i’m sorry I didn’t quite understand that… can you please repeat that again?”

‘ _… I am… here… waiting…_ ’ 

His hands holding the spirit box begin to shake slightly with the ominous response. “waiting?” He breathes the word, a thoughtful crease to his brow. “For what?” 

‘ _… gold…fortune…_ ’

“gold?” Ryan repeated, tone coloured in disbelief. “were you a miner here?” 

The Sprit Box let out a violent screech, Ryan winced at the sound as did the other’s behind the various cameras and other equipments working on the set. 

“o-okay! I wont ask that again” Ryan tried to sooth the ghost, clearing his throat to give himself a moment to compose his nerves. “is it just you out here? Or are there others like you here?” 

The Spirit Box let out a splutter of noise, tone dropping. ‘ _… others… gone…_ ’ 

“gone? From the mining days?” 

Static is his only reply, the barest hints of words coming out in a disjointed hiss amongst the white noise that seems to be overshadowing it. 

Ryan can’t help but shake the Spirit Box in his hands as if it would kick-start it into working properly. It was an impulsive action to do but for all his seasons of dealing with supernatural entities he had never had the Spirit Box begin to play up like it has now. That fact alone, paired with the cryptic messages the ghost had replied with caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. 

Fiddling with the nobs on Spirit Box only seemed to make the static worse, the sound grating and almost rising in pitch not unlike the squeal of a boiling kettle. Heaving a frustrated sigh at the results Ryan frowned at the technology in his hands for no matter what he does, the Spirit Box would only give out fuzzy radio noises and not the usual high paced switching between channels. It was as if there was some kind of interference which was affecting the Spirit Box. 

Looking up from the thing, he cast his gaze to fixate on a spot of open air as if he were talking face-to-face with the ghoul which replied moments ago. “it seems that we’re having some issues with radio interference… but I thank you, who-ever you are for responding before but I’m going to switch the Spirit Box off now” 

The moment he switched off the technology, the group were thrown into an almost deafening silence without the white-noise of the Spirit Box. 

“i- there’s some kind of interference going on with the Spirit Box” Ryan decided to inform after a moment of them standing in silence. He guessed that the other’s might have already deduced that but in all honesty Ryan wasn’t sure if he could take another moment of silence between them all. 

“want to wrap this up?” Devon asked from behind her camera and wasn’t she just a blessing? For she was always looking out for him, especially when they encountered possible supernatural occurrences. 

“maybe…” the smaller man hummed absently, glancing down at the Spirit Box in his hands. “I don’t like the reasons behind the interference” 

There was a sound of shifting which brought Ryan’s attention to his other cameraman. “we are in a remote area, Ryan… it could be that we are in some sort of dead-zone” T.J reasoned casually and Ryan wasn’t surprised by the logical response for the man had an unshakable dismissal for the supernatural. 

An awkward silence continues for a beat before Devon proposed an idea. “how about we get a few more scenery shots… maybe get some footage of you standing by the ruins?” 

Sending a look towards the brick ruins, Ryan schooled his expression to not show the opposition he was feeling towards that idea. Although, he knew that the others with him would prefer if they actually recorded a decent amount of footage as the drive out to the Reserve had chewed into a lot of their own free time. He owed it to them to at least give a proper go at exploring the location, regardless of his feelings on the matter. 

“alright” he agreed eventually, the word falling heavy from his lips. 

The rest of the crew began to move around him, filming various shots of the sandy soil and ruins shrouded in moonlight. Normally Ryan would feel accomplished with the filming and the research he’d put together for the show but as he stood off to the side while the other’s worked his thoughts turned towards the strange occurrences with the Spirit Box. 

He’d never seen it have so much interference before on the show.. it couldn’t have been other radio stations as they were a fair distance away from any cell towers to pick up the signals. Perhaps T.J was right with the suggestion that the area was a dead-zone? But even if that was true, then why had the ghost given him such cryptic answers? Was the connection to the Sprit Box not strong enough or was there some kind of bigger entity which was preventing the ghost from properly conversing with the living? 

Ryan wasn’t sure as he cast a look down to the Spirit Box in his hands. It felt the same as it always had, a metallic casing with an average weight similar to that of a phone. He saw a member of the crew walk by him out of the corner of his eye but he was paying to much attention to the technology in his hands to tell who it was. 

Something was strange about this region with how the locals warned of evil spirits, how the radio signals could be heard easily in their cars but as soon as he used the Spirit Box he couldn’t pick up any channel. Something was different about this area and Ryan would get to the bottom of it, no matter how long it takes. 

“…and thats a wrap!” Devon called cheerfully from behind her camera, sometime into the span of time where Ryan was lost in his own thoughts. Looking up  Ryan ran a hand through his dark hair, relieved to finally have finished the recording of the episode. Although he was disappointed to not have any real footage of supernatural at the moment, but perhaps if his plan goes right, he might have some evidence on his hands if he explores the area. 

Cheers erupted around him but as he noted the others move to pick up their equipment but his musings before were the only thing on his mind as he stood there mutely amongst the ruins.

“you coming, Ryan?” An member of the crew that Ryan wasn’t sure of their name asked, seeming to be the first to notice that Ryan hadn’t moved to collect his laptop and script papers. 

As the rest of the crew turned their gaze to him in curiosity, it took everything in him to not fidget nervously. “it’s alright, you guys go ahead” he soothed, arm moving to rub the back of his neck as he noted their questioning looks. “I-I think I might get some more establishing shots on the area myself” 

“are you sure?” Devon queried giving the smaller man a worried look. “it doesn’t sit very well with me to leave you alone out here” 

He surprised the aggravated sigh that rose within him, it seemed it would be harder to get away from the team then he thought.  “i won’t be long. Maybe five or ten minutes behind you guys” Ryan tried to reassure the others, trying to send Devon a smile in the hopes she would agree. 

Time seemed to crawl as he waited with baited breath for Devon’s answer. “alright… you better stay safe or there will be trouble” she replied after a thoughtful pause, pointing her finger in his direction in a enforcing manner. 

He couldn’t help the relieved laugh that escaped him. “i’ll try” 

“you better do more than try, mister. If there’s ghouls out here you might need to call the Winchester brothers if anything goes awry” she joked and the rest of the crew let out chuckles in response.  

He wasn’t surprised by the quip, seeming as he was the only one in the crew that believed in the supernatural. The others like T.J and Devon were mainly apathetic to the issue but leaned more towards skeptic than believer. “alright, alright, I hear you loud and clear” he bantered back, seeing the rest of the crew begin to move the equipment into the rent-car. “Now, go back to the hotels and get some sleep already”

Devon let out a chuckle and soon she too turned to load up the car with cameras, microphones and various other equipment need to make the episode.

 As the crew began to load up their rent car, Ryan couldn't help the tension in his shoulders and he just waited for them to leave. Did it always take this long at other locations? He wanted nothing more for them to leave so he could research and explore the region more without the other’s interrupting him or watching him. 

“where will we meet you?” T.J grumbled from the driver’s seat. 

At the question Ryan pulled the map out from his back-pocket to show the older man. “here” he said while pointing at a road off Alice Springs. “our hotel is along this road… we can re-group there tomorrow morning” 

“let me have a look at the thing” Wordlessly, Ryan passed the map to the other, who assessed the region and the roads along it with a furrowed brow. 

“Ryan” turning at the call, the smaller man distractedly came face to face with Devon. 

“yeah?” 

“if anything happens… you’ll call us, won’t you?” She queried, fiddling with her hands in a worried tick. 

“of course… you’ll be the first to know” he soothed, placing a reassuring hand on the other’s shoulder to reinforce it. Devon nodded, moving as if to open her mouth before a call cut the conversation between them. 

“hey!” A voice hollered from the rent-car. “Let’s get going then before Devon changes her mind and stays back with Ryan like a worried mother hen” 

Hands on her hips, Devon turned to berate the caller. “i’ve got reason too! Who will host the show if our only host dies because no-one stayed back to make sure the idiot stays safe in a foreign country” 

“geez, thanks” Ryan complained with a teasing lilt as Devon turned to give him an apologetic look. 

“well… guess that’s my cue to leave you be”

Ryan tried to keep the relief being too obvious on his face. “i think so too. See you later”

So that was how Ryan found himself standing alone in the Historic Reserve with the flash of the red-brake lights of the crew’s rent-car grew fainter and fainter as Ryan stood there amongst the sandy soil and ruins, watching the crew drive off from Road 8 and back onto Road 87. 

“well this is it Bergara, time to solve this” he murmured aloud to himself as if it would stave away any doubts that could surface. 

Even well into the night, the humidity of the region was like a thick weight on the air, an unrelenting pressure which niggled at the back of Ryan’s mind as he turned back to the ruins. 

This time with an EMF Detector in his hands, Ryan switched the device on in order to assess the site. Usually the EMF Detector would be used to measure the electromagnetic field to diagnose problems with electrical wiring, power lines and to get readings on working appliances. Although for Ryan, the main use of the EMF is to detect whether there is a supernatural presence in an area which had been tampering with the Spirit Box. If there was a entity here then the gauge will indicate the intensity of the reading and makes a distinctive sound in response. 

A voice in the back of his head whispers that he’d prefer if nothing is indicated but the curious side of him wants there to be a noise, in order to prove at least for himself that there is evidence of the supernatural which he detected by himself. 

The light of the EMF illuminated the immediate area around him, the dial ticking back and forwards as it read the energies. Ryan paused in his stride, hoping that if he was stationary then the EMF would be able to read the area properly. Looking down, he noted that the dial was more in the green area indicating low if not indistinguishable energies. 

Holding back the agitated sigh that rose within him, Ryan turned on his heels, walking towards the ruins of the police station in the exact spot he’d talked to the ghost earlier on the Spirit Box. Here the dial jumped, ticking upwards towards the middle range of the frequencies. Startled by the sudden jump in energies Ryan glances upwards, wide-eyes as he tried to stare blindly into the darkness around him as if something were about to attack him from the dark. 

He was broken from his assessing by the obvious sound of a ‘ _beep_ ’ from the EMF. “shit” he cursed, glancing back down to the technology help in a death-grip in his hands, the knuckles turning white with the force he was holding it with. 

“h-hello? Is there anyone here with me?” He asked aloud to the empty space around him nervously. 

Silence meet his question, the sound more unnerving to him than if something actually replied. “this was such a stupid idea, Ryan” he berated himself after a pause, wandering around the ruins as he kept his gaze on the EMF which let out an occasional ‘ _beep_ ’ when a spike in energies appeared. “it’s probably just picking up the car or the car radio… yeah, that’s all, no ghosts or demons or anything of the like” 

Even as he spoke he couldn’t shake the paranoid sensation of being watched, an unrelenting feeling of eyes on him no matter where he walked. pausing at a particularly ‘red zone’ frequency, Ryan looked up from the EMF to see what looked like two dots glinting in the distance. A chill wracked him despite the oppressive heat of the region. The dots looked eerily like eyes watching him from the shadows. “d-don’t be ridiculous… your minds playing tricks on you” 

But as he continued to walk around the ruins, measuring out the EMF readings he’d find his gaze wandering back to the spot where those two dots resided. Hands shaking faintly on the technology Ryan pointedly looked away from the dots, returning his gaze back to the EMF just as it gaze a loud ‘beep’. This seems to continue for hours as he wanders around the rounds, EMF in one hand while his handheld night-vision camera resided in the other. 

Almost subconsciously as Ryan sends a sweep of the camera over the region does he find himself pointing the camera to the position those ‘eyes’ where watching him from. Heart giving a painful jolt in his chest Ryan finds the space void of anything. 

Wide-eyes he whips his head around the region frantically as if whatever was lurking in the shadows had decided this was the right time to make a snack out of him. Although the dots where gone from the environments around him, Ryan still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. “breathe, Bergara, breathe” he urged as he walked to the car as the sensation just began to build and build. His walk back to the car was just shy of running as panic began to flare up in his chest. 

All but slamming the door closed, Ryan sat still in his car for a moment, casting a fearful look around his surroundings. He could see nothing around him, the area almost void like thanks to the lack of lights. He spared a glance to his passenger seat only to remember that he’d left his laptop back in the reserve. 

Throwing his head back with a sigh, Ryan’s head rested agains the head-rest of his leather seat. “do I really need it?” He questioned aloud to himself and felt immediately ridiculous the moment the words left his mouth. Of course he needed it, that laptop has countless notes and backup data on everything related to Unsolved. He was a grown man, he shouldn’t be scared of things that lurked in the dark but here he was, sitting alone in the driver’s seat of his rent-car just off to the side of an Historic Reserve. 

Slowly opening the door, Ryan once again creeped out into the dark, cursing himself for not getting the laptop earlier. Every rustle he heard frayed his shot neves more and more and for a moment he wished nothing more than to have someone here with him, to have a co-host who would sooth him when he got worked up over the supernatural, to re-assure  him that everything would be fine even when it felt like everything was collapsing around him. 

Finally, he could see the shape of the picnic-table ahead of him, after moments of him stumbling frantically though the sandy grounds. Reaching out, his fingers met the smooth casing of his laptop and the relief he felt was immense as he gripped the technology to his chest like some sort of life-line. 

A crack of a stick snapped behind him and Ryan didn't bother to cast his attention behind him as he all but bolted towards the direction of his rent car. Breath rushing out of him as he stumbled blindly, kicking up the rich-red soils in his haste towards his rent-car. 

Nearly slamming into the metal of the car, Ryan all but wrenched the door open before locking himself into the car. Chest heaving he ducked his head against the steering-wheel as he caught his breath. Eyes screwed shut as if it would prevent whatever was out there from knowing where he was. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, head pressed against the steering-wheel of the rent-car as he sat there in a tense silence. 

Uncurling from his position he slowly collected his laptop from it’s abandoned position in his lap and placed the newly returned laptop to the space on the passenger-seats floor. Wanting nothing more then to get away from the region Ryan switched on the engine, the sound mildly comforting as it filled the deathly silence of the area. 

Like before, as he slowly peeled away from the curb, his rent-car jolted unevenly as it drove over the rough terrain of Road 8. Sparing a glance to his rear-view, Ryan could only see the red-tinted dust his car kicked up as he drove along the road, unable to see the reserve or anything there with the dust obstructing his view. It didn’t matter now, his exploration was all for nought seeing as any extra readings or film hardly proved anything concrete in evidence of supernatural. 

The only evidence of his previous encounter was the way his hands gripping the wheel a tad to tight. Driving along the expanse of road his mind turned to the crew and what they were doing and if they were wondering about him.

 His rent car seemed even more lonely in that moment as he sat in the driver’s seat, he spared a look to the passenger seat. As if to mock him, his mind flashed an image of a pale gangly man seated beside him, tapping a rhythm into the handset beside him. Ryan couldn’t make out the other’s features as the image of the man looked out the window. Then just before the man turned to look at him the image was gone and Ryan found himself alone and staring at the empty seat beside him. 

Pointedly he started up the engine with more force than necessary, the rumble of the car washing away his lonely thoughts. Hands tight on the wheel, he kept his gaze forward with an air of determination. 

The familiar dark road of Road 87 was ahead of him although this time as he drove on the highway there were no cars driving on the road opposite his. Unsurprisingly he was utterly alone at this time of the night which made his drive a tad monotonous as he drove. The tarred road continued to appear over and over again on the horizon and Ryan wondered for a moment if he had gone the wrong way in his haste. He couldn’t even comprehend the last time he saw an off ramp or a diverging road other than the previous one he was on. 

The area around him looked unrecognisable and Ryan’s tired mind struggled to come up with a plan. He’d either have to keep moving forwards and see where the road takes him or he’d have to veer off at the next branch off he comes into contact with. The moon was low in the sky above him tinted an eery orange as it hung low over the red-soil road ahead of him. It seemed to stretch endlessly before him, snaking up and down over the small crests that littered the land. 

“this… looks nothing like the roads we drove earlier” Ryan mused aloud to himself as he continued past an unknown turn off from Road 87. He didn’t want to risk it just yet, especially with it being dark the surroundings looked nothing like it had during the drive to the Reserve. 

An idea overcoming he spared a glance to his passenger seat gaze roamed the seat for the map only to find it gone. “what? Where-“ he cut himself off as it dawned on him. He’d last given the map to T.J so the other could see where they were going although he never had the chance to get the map back from the other due to being distracted by the rest of the crew. “damn it” he cursed, hitting a first on the steering wheel in his frustration. 

He’d have to just keep driving and hope he comes across a turn off which he could go down and hopefully find somewhere to stay. The radio continued to play into the silence that surrounded him, the barest hints of static filtering through the music every so often. 

After an hour or so of driving blindly along Road 87, a faded sign reflected off of the rent-car’s headlights. Although due to the signs age, the reflected on the faded sign was unreadable as Ryan slowed down to pull of into the first turn off Ryan had come across for miles. The road was unlike any other road he’d seen earlier as neither he nor the team has driven along a dirt-road other than the one that lead to the Reserve and Ryan had turned off of that road miles and miles ago. Although this would have to do, anything to get him off that stretch of highway which was undoubtedly going in a direction that was no where near his desired direction of Alice Springs. 

This road was surprisingly another dirt-road, except this one seemed to have distinct groves where cars had passed through it. It was smooth, the red soil smooth under his car’s tires rather than jagged and the tension in his shoulders lessened as he breathed out a relieved sigh. So far this road seemed to be much more forgiving than Road 8 was, so perhaps it was a road which lead to a small town much like the one he’d been to earlier.  

As he traveled smoothly along the road, Ryan’s gaze turned to the various ghostly-white Eucalyptus trees lining the edges of the road along with patches of dense flora. It was strange how different the environment was in each part of the continent, for Ryan had earlier explored the tropical state of Queensland with it’s lush rainforest and white sandy beaches. It was a total contradiction to this state, located right in the centre of the Australian continent with its iron rich soils and scarce plant-life. 

Continuing on and on with the expanse of stars twinkled against the rich navy above him, Ryan felt as if he had been traveling for hours but the clock on his dashboard pointed to him that he’d only driving along this road for 30 minutes maximum. Musing on calling the other’s, he stretched over to his passenger seat, fingers millimetres from his phone when he was distracted by something ahead of him. The rent-car’s  headlights highlighted the road before him, only to reveal a silhouetted figure hunched over on the road.

Withdrawing his hand from his phone with a jerk, Ryan retuned both hands on the wheel, breaking to slow down as he neared the figure. Letting out startled breath at the sight before him Ryan couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a man with blood covered his face and matted his hair, making it impossible to distinguish his features. All that Ryan could distinguish was that he was tall, extremely tall with gangly limbs, some of which were bent or sticking out in directions inhumanly possible. 

Ryan’s heart thudded against his chest at the gory sight. “h-holy shit” he gaped, breath catching in his throat. He was frozen in terror for a moment before the more rational side of his brain kicked in. This man must have been in a car accident or perhaps escaping from a murder. Either way, they must have been severely injured to have that much blood and broken bones. Thoughts raced in his mind as Ryan tried to rationalise what to do, for how far was it to the nearest town? Hell, where was a hospital even located from this point?

“hold on i- i- I’ll get you some help” Ryan called to the man, hands shaking as he reached for his abandoned cell phone with shaking hands. The bright screen from his phone blinded him for a moment as he blinked at the screen only to find his stomach to drop with dread as he read the words ‘no signal’ where his cell-phone service would usually be. “no- no! Not now!” He ground out before he rose his gaze to find the spot that the man stood in eerily empty. 

“What?” He gasped and time slowed for a moment before turning his head only to jolt as the man smashed up against his driver side window. Mouth opened in a silent scream Ryan could only stare as the bloodied man rapt aggressively against the rent-car’s window screen, bloodied hand prints smearing against the glass at the action.

Horrifically, at this proximity Ryan could see the injuries clear as day. The man’s right arm was bending in a place where it shouldn’t have and Ryan noted the flash of white sticking out from all of that dark blood seemingly coating the man. Fighting against the urge to throw up at the injuries littering the other, Ryan moved to look somewhere else on the other as if he looked away from the wound it was disappear. Pieces of glass, possibly from a broken windscreen littered the man’s body, the glass glinting like stars in the light from the car’s headlights.

Although it wasn’t those things that unnerved Ryan the most, for worse of all was near the man’s head for his neck was bent naturally to the side, his head lolling limply against his shoulder as he stared Ryan directly in the eye with glazed dull eyes. Those eyes, were what stuck in Ryan’s head as he froze all but paralysed into a staring contest with the man. His eyes were clouded in a grey film- the colour all but sucked out of them. It reminded Ryan vividly of seeing dead fish when he’d had to scoop them out of his family fish tank when he was younger, for the fish always an eery clouded look to their eyes much like this man’s did. It jolted Ryan out of his frozen state, the man looked _dead_. 

The man continued to abuse the window of Ryan’s rent-car, hitting the glass over and over with a dull ‘ _thud… thud… thud_ ’ like the beat of drum-kit. Just as Ryan thought that the man was going to break down his window he squeezed his eyes shut to avoid the carnage of glass and violence that was bound to come. Slowly the thudding sound halted and It was early silent for a beat, although Ryan couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes so he just sat there in silence, trying to slow down his hearts racing tempo. 

  ‘BE _E_

_EEE_

EE _P!’_

 A horrific screeching sound shattered the silence with a startling sound of a car-horn blasting. Wrenching his eyes open Ryan was meet with the flash of headlights heading straight before him. With a yelp, he swerved harshly, just avoiding colliding with the other car who continued blasting their horn at him even after they passed. 

Once safely on the other side of the road, Ryan pulled over unable to continue driving at the force of which he was shaking. He was gasping, oxygen not seeming to be entering his lungs fast enough. “w-what the fuck” he wheezed the question, wide-eyed as he stared blankly at the steering wheel before him. “i-i wasn’t even driving moments ago and then…” he trails off, words dying in this throat. 

What had even happened? He was just driving and then he’d seen that _thing_ \- a shiver wracked his body as imaged of the blooded body flashed in his mind. But then the next thing he knew he was face to face with an oncoming car… was he sleep deprived? Had stress caught up to him and made him have these strange hallucinations? Ryan wasn’t sure… but now he didn’t even know what was real or not. His heart was still going a million-miles a minute in his chest, threatening to burst from the rate. 

He thumped his head against the head-rest behind him, letting out a breath in order to calm himself down. He needed to continue driving, being out in the middle of no-where would do him no good, especially if he was losing his mind out here. With hands shaking faintly on the steering wheel, Ryan slowly began to drive forward once again, pointedly ignoring his rear-view mirror as if he looked back in it he would see that man- that _thing_ \- staring at him as he drives away. 

Only when he was sure there was enough distance between him and whatever he had just witnessed did Ryan let himself focus back to figuring out where he was going. On the horizon he could see the expanse of the road, a constant continuation which only seemed to get longer and longer despite the distance he was making. 

The ghost-gums outside his window passed by the white colour of the bark almost blinding under the beam of his rent-car’s headlights.  How long would it be? How many miles until the road lead to somewhere? Ryan didn’t know for each tree he passed looked like exactly like previous one he’d passed hours ago but that was impossible unless he was somehow driving in circles along a straight stretch of road. Shaking his head to dismiss the thoughts he just continued driving, ignoring looking in his rear-view mirror in case he’d see something ghastly in the reflection. There was no point in checking it for any cars either for the last one he’d seen was hours ago back on Road 87. 

He counts each time he passes a distinctive towering eucalyptus tree, so far he swears he’s passed it at least four times but with a headache all but pressing his brain he isn’t really sure if he’s just delirious from the pain of his headache or the sleep deprivation that’s seemed to hit him all of sudden. 

Looking forwards Ryan cant help the way his eyes feel heavy staring down the ever-stretching road. He pinches himself with his free hand, trying to stave away the weariness of driving and never getting anywhere. Out of the corner of his eye something moves in the bushland to his left and his tired brain struggles to comprehend it as he turns to follow it. With his glance away from the road ahead, his motion of looking left has resulted in his arms to lean the steering wheel in the direction as well. 

Groggily he turns forwards, noting absently that’s he’s drifted in his assessing of the bushland to the side. Righting himself he once again focuses on the road ahead only to have in amongst the mystery of the shadowy figure lurking in the bushland around him, his rent-car’s dash had a light that was continuously blinking at him. The red glow of the signal was obvious against the glowing white lights from the rest of the dashboard. It was an ominous glow as his car began to let out a chocking rumble. 

The ‘ _ping_!’ of the alert sounds, breaking him from his weary state into a wide-eyed alertness he hadn’t felt for miles. “shit, shit, shit! Not now!” Ryan let out the panicked exclamation, eyes dropping to the dash before sending an assessing look over the environment around him. The shadows around him seemed to stretch out towards him like dark tendrils trying to reach him as his rent-car crawled forwards. 

Trying to surpass his growing panic, Ryan noted that just a little further ahead that the flora seemed to thin out enough for him to pull off from the road safely. The car stuttered as he slowly crawled off road, giving a jolt as he began to veer off into an alcove which protected him and his car from being in danger from any other travels who might not see him broken down in the middle of the night. 

As the battery keeping his car running began to deplete, the dashboard has an alarming array of lights and signals which presented fatal issues in regards to his car, a sort of symphony climax of lights before they abruptly cut off, shrouding Ryan in darkness. 

They had warned him not to do this especially alone and _now_ Ryan has found himself alone on a deserted dirt road miles from another living soul, let alone near a place to stay. Now he was forced to either get out of his car and walk somewhere or stay in the car till morning… hopefully by then the rest of his team would realise he had not made it and go looking for him. 

He didn’t particularly want to exit his rent-car, seeming as he had no idea what direction to walk in or even where he was going. He was all alone in an foreign country and he had no idea on how he was going to get out of this one. “i should have just went with the crew… this wouldn’t have happened if I did that” Ryan grumbled aloud to himself, head thumping against the head-rest as he threw his head back in frustration. “but no, I decide to go out and go for a drive around by myself” 

Ryan sat tensely in the driver’s seat, even with the light of the moon and the stars thanks to the clear sky above him, Ryan still had trouble seeing well even justing sitting in the car. What would it be like walking around outside? Would he even know what direction to head towards when all around him was nothing? 

Well, he wouldn’t know unless if he exited the car, there was no point sitting in the dark and waiting to be rescued. He would have to walk and hope he would find another soul somewhere along the road or perhaps stumble upon a town if he were lucky… but that would be wishful thinking.  

First things first, he’d have to check if he could physically see if anything was wrong with the rent-car. Then he can collect the flashlight he stored in the car as a back-up to use in the exploration of Arltunga Reserve for Unsolved and begin walking along the road for help.

Mind made up Ryan got out the car. stepping tentatively to the side of the car, he slowly sinked to his knees beside the car before doubts started to cross his mind. Despite this all his mind gives him is those two eye-like dots he saw in the distance at Arltunga Reserve. Gulping down a breath to even out his shallow breathing Ryan began to bring himself lower to the ground, the red soil coating every crevice as he tried to look under the rent-car. 

With baited breath he stared into the space, expecting something to be lurking in the shadows beneath his car to strike him. Except it was not this that met him but darkness as he stared blindly into the space beneath the car. As he sat there with is knees and elbows pressed into the red-soil Ryan mused that there was no way he could look under the car without a light. so slowly he rose from his lowered position to rummage through the backseat of his car. 

He felt almost naked as he stood in the dark alcove off Ghost-Gum Road, the feeling of eyes an ever prickling sensation as he tried to focus on finding the flashlight situated in the car. Blindly, he felt along the leather seam of the seat and onto the carpeted floors of the car. It took a moment of fumbling before his hand met something cold. His first instinct was to jerk his hand back, mind flashing with dead-cold skin that he had managed to touch but he held back the action. Slowly, he curled his fingers along it, withdrawing his hand from the floor. 

Fumbling he felt along the metal until he felt the outline of a switch. Moving the switch upwards he was suddenly blinded by the ray of the flashlight illuminating the darkness abruptly. Blinking he allowed his eyes to adjust to the new light which allowed him to see a little easier in the darkness. 

This time with the flashlight in hand, he once again began to sink to his knees beside the rent-car, his traitorous mind envisioned a grotesque creature now lurking under the car, perhaps biding it’s time to strike. He wonders that if he does see something now was it there before when he stared into the darkness? just watching, waiting, as he stared blindly into the darkness knowing it had the upper hand and he didn’t. 

Hand shaking around the flashlight, Ryan held his breath as he shone the light beneath the car. Heart hammering as he stared apprehensively into the space as his eyes flickered over the expanse of as his brain slowly recognised that nothing was there lurking in the darkness. 

Despite having not being mauled by some dark entity, the tension still remained in Ryan’s shoulders as he cast his gaze to the fuel gauge of his car that was steadily leaking fluid. The cut along it was clean as if someone or something had cut the part with a pair of sheers.  

Stumped, Ryan shifted himself out from under the car and rested back on his heels. No wonder his rent-car had broken down, there was no way the engine would be able to work with no fuel. He spared a glance behind him staring right into the darkness around him. Theres no point in staying in his broken down rent car, especially with all the crazy things happening to him as of late. 

After getting out his useless rent-car, Ryan stumbled blindly up the road cursing how he’d given T.J the map he had earlier. The map would have at least helped him know which direction to walk in but instead he was just walking blindly along the road and hoping the direction he was heading in would result in seeing somewhere to stay or perhaps if he was lucky come into contact with someone.  

Despite checking the car and the area around him, Ryan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was lurking in the dark watching him shrouded in shadows. It was a childish fear, of something being hidden in plain sight. ‘ _snap!_ ’ He turns widely at the sound. Was something _actually_ there? Lurking in the shadows watching him?

With shaking hands he grips the flashlight tighter in his grip, panning the light over the native flora around him. Then, reflected back at him in the flashlight’s beam was a set of eyes. “shit!” Ryan cursed, arcing the beam of the flashlight in his horrified stumbling backwards. To his horror, more sets of eyes were revealed with the movement- at least six or seven of them just standing there… waiting and watching his every move. 

Nearly dropping the flashlight in his haste he turned and fled, the branches littering the ground from nearby gum-trees scratching his ankles as he bolted backwards. He barely put space between him and the creatures when his ankle caught in a bundle of branches, tripping him in his blind bolt away from the _things_ watching him. He hits the ground with a painful thud, the rich red soil of the region coating him as he claws his hands into the soil, hoping to gain traction to turn to the creatures watching him. 

Gasping he wrenches around on the ground, shining the light back at the things as if a beam of light could stop them from ripping him limb from limb. This time, as he panned over the area property he could see that the sets of eyes turned out to be a group of kangaroos. There eyes glowing an eery white as they stared motionless at him sprawled on the ground. 

A laugh escapes his lips, the sound a bit more hysterical then Ryan would have liked. He just lies there, red-soil coating his clothes as he begins to laugh uncontrollably without meaning to. Laughing so hard that tears prick his eyes, rolling down his cheeks as he gasps for breath. Had he been seeing animals this whole time? Was that what he’d seen all the way back at Arltunga? A pair of eyes from a mammal which was watching him curiously in the lush environment.  

Catching his breath he looks up into the sky above him, the starts twinkling against the dark backdrop of navy blue. God… he wanted nothing more than to collapse into a hotel bed and surrounded by crips white linen, able to just close his eyes and sleep without worrying about creatures lurking in the shadows and a possible psychiatric break-down. The thought gave him a renewed determination and slowly Ryan picks himself up from the ground, brushing off as much soil as he can as he stands shakily. He reaches down to grip the familiar metal of the flashlight, the beam still casting a light on the ground before he picked it back up. 

Every time he thinks he’s safe, something appears in the shadows. His flashlight had run out of power how long ago? Ryan’s not sure. What he does know is that he needs to get off this road sooner or later. He’s losing his mind out here, seeing things move out the corner of his eyes as he’s stumbling blindly along the rich red soil of Ghost-Gum Road. He can feel the sand in his shoes now, a constant scratching sensation which repeats over and over with every step he takes. 

He riffles through his pocket, finger-tips brushing against the case of his phone. Pulling it out, he glances to the screen to find the screen cracked eerily over the time. He expected to be greeted with ‘no signal’ all but mocking him not to find his phone cracked. When did that happen? When he feel back with the kangaroos? That was the only time it could have gotten damaged that Ryan could think of. Cursing aloud he frowned at the phone, wishing he knew the time for the screen was cracked in the space where the time should be displayed making him oblivious to how long he’d been walking along this damned road. 

Frustrated he shoved the phone back in his pocket as he brought up his flashlight to illuminate the road and area around him. nearing closer to a particularly dense patch of plants, Ryan shone his light on a pair of eyes looking at him through the thick vegetation, the figure illuminated clearly under the beam and to Ryan’s horror it isn’t some kind of native mammal but something almost otherworldly. 

In a blink it bursts out from its hiding spot, stalking closer to him on it’s hind legs. Frozen to the spot with his flashlight trained on the thing, Ryan is forced to see the humanoid create come closer and closer. Crowding into the his space, the creature dipped it’s head lowly, catching frightened dark brown eyes as it’s own eyes slowly morph into six pairs of hypnotic neon-green eyes. 

“are you scared, mortal?” It purred, the sound reverberating from it’s chest. 

Ryan stared wide-eyed, utterly frozen as his gaze dropped in horror to the creatures fish-hook styled fangs. It grinned, only showing off more of those deadly teeth glinting white in the cross-fire of the flashlight still held in Ryan’s shaking hands. 

“w-what are you?” 

it’s cheekbones seemed even more prominent in the lowlight, dark scales highlighted under the beam of the flashlight. “i am evil incarnate, child… I am what your kind calls a demon” 

“demon? A-as in from hell?” Ryan spluttered, mind racing as thoughts crashed in his mind. 

“precisely ” It affirmed, seeming to puff it’s chest outwards in pride at the notion, an arrogant swagger thrumming in every ounce of it’s body. “and I have been lucky to find a pure soul like yours here… all alone” One clawed hand moves to caress his cheek, a claw pricking his skin faintly as it drags the digit across his face at an desperately slow pace. 

Ryan is paralysed where he stood, muscles tensed as the creature before him tilts it’s head, humanoid features twisting into something more animalistic as it’s maw open in a grotesque smirk. Even as hand stays against his cheek, Ryan feels more than sees three hands grip his shoulders in a vice grip. Up this close, Ryan can see it’s dark twisted horns, one of the two being broken jaggedly at the base.

In a blink it’s features are back to looking more human-like, “i’ve been watching you trying in vain to prove there’s some kind of supernatural here” it hums. “I’ll give you some advice…” with a flash of a quick grin before it begins to move it’s head impossibly closer to his, tilting to give itself more room to crowd it’s face against Ryan’s. “ubi mors sequitur” it whispers against his ear, needle-like teeth scraping against the sensitive skin of Ryan’s ear before abruptly moving backwards. 

It takes a heartbeat before finally Ryan’s limbs seemed to come back to him. Stumbling backward on unsteady legs, Ryan tried to put distance between him and the demon once it’s hand left his check. The creature cackling in cruel amusement all the while as it regards him in the lowlight. A pair of it’s arms fold across it’s chest, while the other pair hung loosely at its sides. 

“there’s a hint of loneness around you” it hums, head tilted to the side as it observes him. “a hint of grief which taints your pure soul… you long for something just out of your reach, something two steps ahead of you, something you can never truly reach no matter how hard you try” the creature trails off and an unknown emotion flickers in it’s eyes. “i too feel that” it whispers lowly, the tone somber like it was telling him something nothing else knows. 

Ryan stares speechless as it shakes it’s head, dark scales skin glinting from the moon’s light as it steps a tad backwards from Ryan. “i like you mortal” it muses before a slightly jarring grin graces it’s features. “but I like your pain more” 

In a blink the creature is gone as a wave of vertigo overcame Ryan, stumbling like the whole scenery was shifted by the supernatural force. Walking forwards the area around him only seemed to become more shifted and blurred around him, suddenly nauseous Ryan stumbled to a halt, gripping his dark hair on his hands as he breathed deeply through his nose to help alleviate the sensation. Only once his head seemed to stop spinning did Ryan look upwards from his feet only to be greeted once again with the dark red soil road. 

It no longer filled him with the horror that it did once, finding himself in these scenarios where he ends up somewhere completely different with a blink of an eye. Honestly, all Ryan felt was numbness as he stared there blankly at the endless road. Was this purgatory? Had he died and found himself stuck to this cursed road. 

The flashlight laid forgotten at his feet, the light flickering eerily all the while. Bending down Ryan gripped the cool metal in his palm, the sensation jolting him out of his previous mood. He had to continue forwards, regardless of what the meaning of this scenario is. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the lack of Shane and Ryan interaction ( I promise they'll interact next chapter) 
> 
> I hope this isn't too confusing.... anyway until next time :D


	3. thoughts in my head (I can't get no peace)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Ryan thought the situation couldn't got any more bizarre Ryan encounters a stranger while walking along Ghost-Gum Road...

 

The soil seemed to scratch him even inside his shoes as Ryan continued his trek along Ghost-Gum Road. The lingering traces of vertigo still rocked him occasionally as he tried to walk forwards on the road. Who knows what direction he was heading in seeming as he was turned around every time he encountered something impossible. 

Had he dozed off and imagined that demonic creature confronting him? Or was it a hallucination his mind had generated due to the amount of stress he was under thanks to finding himself stuck on an abandoned road? Ryan wasn’t sure, all he knew was that he had to continue forwards. 

His flashlight flickered in his hands, the beam strobing like it would when he encountered demons. Ignoring how the hairs on the back of his neck prickled at the thought, Ryan shook the flashlight as if it would make the light return. It flickered one more before leaving him shrouded in shadows. 

“shit!” He cursed, trying in vain to see in the area around him when all he saw was darkness.  

Stumbling Ryan moves blindly taking one step at a time as he walks a few paces forwards before nearly tripping on something at his feet. Steadying himself he paused, letting out a breath. “alright… think, Bergara, think” he murmurs aloud to himself, the eery silence of the region doing nothing to calm his frayed nerves. 

His free-hand pats down his side, feeling his way down towards his jean’s pocket. His finger-tips brush against the familiar casing of his phone. Gripping the metal, he slowly brings the phone before him, blindly feeling for the home button to allow himself just a moment to see. The light from his phone casts outwards and Ryan blinks for a moment to allow his eyes adjust to the new lighting. 

Surprisingly he’d not walked to much off course in his wanderings, casting a look behind him Ryan trudged his way back onto the highway. His phone’s battery was at 20% and he cursed his bad-luck and inability to charge his phone to 100% like any other sane person would do. Keeping his phone on low brightness, Ryan continued forwards. The light was fairly pathetic and did nothing more than illuminate around 2 feet ahead of him. Oh well, at least this way he’d know he was on track. 

Around him in the bushland the cicadas where all but screeching, a welcome break to the monotonous silence that Ryan was used to for so long. He’s sick of it already, being on this cursed road that is. He’s tired of these remote roads that seem to stretch for miles. He’s weary of these tricks and how he’s seemingly losing his mind out here. So caught in his thoughts was he that the sudden appearance of a light startled him as something shines on him from behind. He stares stunned at his feet for a moment, seeing his shadow cast out before him by the high-powered white light. 

Ryan turned in utter disbelief, raising a hand upwards to cover his face as he’s greeted with the tell-tale beam of a car’s headlights. What were the odds that there was another car out along this place at this time of night? Fighting the rising nerves of coming into contact with a stranger, Ryan tried to ignore all those crime conspiracies he’d read too late at night from flashing in his head as he stepped out into the middle of the road, waving his arms around to signal the other to slow. 

The car, clearly an off-road 4-wheeled drive suited for the rough terrain, slowed to a crawl as it neared Ryan. The smaller man in turn neared the driver’s side as the individual inside lowered the tinted window closest to Ryan. 

“hey there!” Ryan greeted as confidently as he could, as he caught the gaze of the warm brown eyes of the stranger. “Sorry to bother you at this hour but my car’s broken down a little further back and I was meant to meet up my friends in Alice Springs a little over an hour ago…” he trailed off her, uncertainty rising in his chest as he assessed the other’s neutral expression. “would I, uh- be able to catch a ride to the nearest town?”

Surprisingly the man sent him a charming grin. “of course… I saw your car a few miles back and wondered what it was doing there” the stranger replied in a deep Illinois accent. Blinking as the thought clicked in his head he mused on the thought that the stranger was an American which Ryan did not exactly expect when meeting another person in a foreign country. “why don’t you get in? we can sort the finer details along the way” 

Ryan felt relief flood him as he rounded his way towards the passenger side of the vehicle. He opened the door to slide in beside the other man, the indicator light blinking all the while. The black leather seat hissed slightly under his weight as Ryan clicked in his seatbelt. 

Once he was done, he cast his attention over to the stranger who’s prominent features looked even more stark in the lowlight from the dashboard. He was around thirty with light brown hair neatly brushed back from his face although a few stray strands fell in-front of his eyes. He was not what you would consider typically attractive but he did have some sort of charm that just seemed to draw Ryan’s attention. 

The engine rumbled as the man began to drive once again and outside the silhouetted gum trees passed by. A grin spread out on the other’s face and Ryan couldn’t help but notice how handsome this man really was. “it’s not safe wandering around like this at night, anyone could be hanging around waiting for someone like you to abduct” he mused, a mischievous glint to his warm brown eyes.  

The blood in Ryan’s veins seemed to abruptly turn to ice and he internally retracted his statement of finding this stranger attractive. He was horribly mistaken, looks _were_ misleading it seemed and now he was going to pay the price of it, most likely murdered brutally and dumped somewhere in the middle of that rich red soil that surrounded him. “i- y-you…” Ryan spluttered, eyes frantically turning towards the door handle, mind racing on how fast he could escape on foot before the car would catch up to him… currently not to far under every variable he could come up with. 

The stranger let out a chortle at his stuttering mess of a response, eyes crinkling at the force of his mirth. “whoa whoa! i’m kidding! _God_ \- calm down, you look like you’re about to burst a blood vessel” 

“Christ!” Ryan cursed, heart hammering in his chest. “why would you say something like that? I don’t even know you!” 

The stranger chanced a look away from the road and gave Ryan a once over, eyes dragging slowly to meet his eye before he smiled charmingly as if he hadn’t just checked Ryan out so bluntly. “if I’d known you were the anxious type I would have avoided that introduction… i’m known to be quite strange and off-putting” the stranger conversed, lips tugging into a grin. “the name’s Shane by the way” 

“Ryan” the smaller man responded tightly, fighting off the flush creeping up his neck.  

“nice to meet you Ryan” the stranger- Shane- greeted, turning his attention back to the dark road ahead of them.  “so what were you doing out in the good old Red Centre?” 

“i could ask you the same thing” Ryan retorted, raising a brow at the taller man. 

Shane let out an amused laugh, unfazed by the other’s defensive attitude. “i am traveling around as I have been over the past few… weeks?” He replies but the response comes off as more of a question than a definitive answer. Before Ryan can question him, the other man continued, “See the roads are just so much easier to travel on during the middle of the night” he revealed casually. “It’s quite therapeutic”

“where have you been?” Ryan asked, curiosity peaked on this enigmatic man before him. 

“ooh… anywhere and everywhere but currently i’m heading to Darwin, in the Northern Territory. Australia is such a vast and diverse country, that I knew i’d have to come here and explore it myself” at this he side-eyed Ryan in the passenger seat, words tinged with humour. “I’ll have you know i’m quite the vagabond” Ryan nodded as he saw Shane turn his attention back the red soil road before them. “what led you to come here, Ryan? I can tell by your accent that you’re not a local” 

“no! I’m an American through and through” Ryan confirmed with a laugh before he sobered. “I’m-“ he faltered before the words ‘ _i’m a youtuber_ ’ fell from his lips, for what would that fact even mean to someone like Shane? Someone who travelled around from place to place without a care in the world. Perhaps it was best to keep that in the dark for now, hell, it’d be unlikely to see the other again so why not be someone unrecognisable for one day. “i’m out here with friends for a holiday” the lie fell from his lips smoothly and he licked his lips nervously before continuing. "We went out to explore some haunted location out here but on my way back to the hotel we are staying at my rent-car broke down… right in the middle of nowhere” he spared a glance at the other to see Shane already looking at him. “but you already know that” he mused a teasing lilt to his words. 

Shane grinned broadly, bright like the stars spanning the sky above them. “i sure do” he agreed jovially before a thoughtful crease formed between his brow as a thought occurred to him. “hold on… did you say you went to go explore a haunted location?” 

Ryan ducked his head as a flash of embarrassment filled him. “yes, i’m quite the believer in the supernatural and all that goes with it” he revealed and turned to gauge the other man’s reaction to the news. Most likely he’d think Ryan was a nut-job but really, he should have been prepared to be surprised.  

“you dabble in the occult?” Shane joked but his grin with a tad too sharp, eyes a little too hard. 

“n-no” Ryan denied uneasy at the sight but the moment he blinked it seemed to disappear as if it had never happened, the grin gracing the other nothing other than jovial. Skin prickling with nervous energy Ryan continued, “i’m not exactly a fan of demons” he confessed, turning his attention to the bushland passing by his car-window. 

Shane hummed thoughtfully in reply and when Ryan spared a glance towards the other, the taller man had turned his attention back to the road. “i’m a skeptic myself” Shane confessed, tone holding no judgement for Ryan’s beliefs. “i reckon aliens could exist though… our universe is so expansive that we couldn’t be the only life out there” 

“well we agree on something then” Ryan mused lightly, the more casual atmosphere returning. He would have mentioned his love for true crime but that wasn’t something you just kinda spring onto a stranger or someone you just met. Knowing himself, he’d probably begin rambling on techniques and theories on famous killers. Also, it wasn’t exactly the right time to bring up true crime seeming as Ryan himself was in a situation that could warrant that behaviour. Although maybe he would have earlier but with all those weird supernatural things occurring around him at the moment Ryan didn’t exactly want to find out his current companion was actually a murderer biding his time to kill him. 

Despite how Ryan’s thoughts had turned elsewhere, Shane’s seemed to be stuck on the topic of extraterrestrials. “i think they wouldn’t be little green men though, more bacteria like or slug-like… simple celled organisms” 

His previous statement didn’t seem to stand true anymore as Ryan sent the other a disbelieved look. “slugs? That’s the most boring thing I have ever heard” 

Shane let out a chuckle at the other’s comment before he expanded his reasoning. “it is logical though. Just think of our Earth millions of years ago… with all that fire and water. Life started on a simple cellular level, possible only occurring due to specific conditions and other forms of life started as simple prokaryotic organisms” he pauses here still keeping his eyes on the road. “It took us eons to progress to where we are today… so why couldn't aliens be less progressive than we are? Why are they always more than us in every way possible?” 

Ryan wasn’t sure how to respond to that for Shane did have a point. His silence is telling more than any argument he’d make as Shane continues down the seemingly endless dirt-road. It puzzled and frustrated him how the other man was so worldly, seemingly pondering the universe and its secrets but somehow still fails to even comprehend the existence of ghouls or the supernatural. 

Shane spared him a glance out of the corner of his eye. “So… if you don’t mind me asking, where are your friends at?” 

“it’s alright” Ryan soothed, looking over at Shane in the low-light. “they're at Alice Springs”

He can feel the other’s disbelief without seeing his expression properly. “without you?” Shane queries, a surprised tint to his voice. 

Ryan can’t help the slightly hysterical grin that overcomes his features. “my plan… not theirs” 

He can sense the way Shane wants to ask him why he’s out here. There’s something behind the easy grins he sends him, like he’s trying to hold himself back from asking Ryan something. So without much thought Ryan decided to tell him. “i… when my friends and I were exploring the Reserve, the technology I was using was acting up, doing things it wouldn’t normally do. So, when my friends were ready to leave with the rather pathetic evidence we had, I told them I wanted to stay back for a bit. My friend- Devon- she wasn’t happy with me staying but I convinced her after a while” 

“sounds like a stupid plan” the taller man scoffs, scowling at the empty open road before them before he sends the other a sheepish look as the significance of his words dawned on him. “uh- sorry?” 

A wheezing laugh escapes Ryan in disbelief. How could someone be so insensitive but endearing at the same time? Shaking his head he spares a glance to Shane to see the other eyeing him in the lowlight. “so that’s the story of how I ended up here, all alone, because I decided to explore the region for anything supernatural” 

A silence follows his words before Shane breaks it. “you’re not alone… not now” 

Startled Ryan whipped his head around to stare at the other only to find the taller man’s eyes on the road, a faint flush crawling it’s way up his neck. “yeah… i’m not” Ryan agrees softly, gaze caught on Shane’s profile. Sees the other’s lips twitch with the barest hint of a smile before Shane schools his expression like the moment never happened. 

Deeming the conversation over, Ryan leaned his head back against the head-rest behind him, sliding his gaze towards the scenery passing by his window. Regardless as the shapeless flora passes him by, his thoughts strayed to Shane. He is an enigma, that man. Ryan had only known him for less than twenty-four hours and yet he can’t shake the feeling that he’s met him before. Was it strange to think that? Probably. Perhaps the stress of the situation was catching up to him and manifesting in outrageous thoughts. 

Speaking of the situation at hand, Ryan had hoped that if he happened to run into someone it would make the road before him seem a little less never-ending. Although, as he watched the red dirt-road ahead of him stretch further and further on the horizon that ideal seems to not be the case. 

“did you hear about that man who died on this road?” Shane proposed around who-knows how many miles along Ghost-Gum Road, the white ghost-gum trees outside passing by as nothing more than a blurred outline. 

Ryan shook his head, unsure if the taller man was referencing the accident the indigenous woman had told him earlier that day or not. “i don’t think so” he replies vaguely.   

“well…” Shane hums, turning his gaze turned to the road before them as be began the tale. “About twenty years ago a man around our ages was traveling along Ghost-Gum Road despite locals warning him of the evil happenings of the road. The man, who was a skeptic, brushed off their warnings and fears about the road believing it to be chalked up to superstition” 

“so, the man decided to travel at night on the idea that the road would be fairly empty and would allow him to reach his next destination quicker. It was around 2-3 in the morning that the man started to feel sleep deprivation tug at him. Although despite this, the man continued his journey only to find himself at in an unideal situation a few hours later” 

Ryan couldn’t help the frown overcoming his features as the time Shane spoke of stuck in his mind. 2 or 3 in the morning? He hadn’t read anything about the time of death being recorded in the paper… perhaps Shane had read the obituary? But if he did, then he’d have to know the man’s name. Even Ryan didn’t know the name for the article he’d read had strangely retracted the name from the article. But why? He was broken from his musing as Shane began to continue the story. 

“around half an hour as the night was beginning to show the barest hints of dawn, the man came face to face with a kangaroo which was migrating across Ghost-Gum Road. Startled, with slow reflexed he slammed on the breaks, swerving in hopes of missing the kangaroo. As he swerved to avoid the animal, the tires of his car lost traction on the road and spinning out of control his 4-wheeled drive slammed into a group of eucalyptus trees”  

He spared Ryan a glance as he finishes his tale. “that was how they found him the next day, dead at the wheel of his car… Either it was the force of the hit or the whiplash he received that snapped his neck on impact with the trees” 

Swallowing hard at the brutal image and the sickening ‘ _crack!_ ’ sound that echoed in his ears, Ryan managed to speak against the lump in his throat. “must have been going pretty fast to do that damage” 

“oh yeah… but regardless of the speed, just hitting those gum trees would have wrecked his car, let alone the man himself either way” 

Ryan cant make himself look at Shane as the other’s words seem to echo in his head. The image of the wrecked car all but wrapped around the bunch of eucalyptus trees flashes in his mind abruptly, the grainy image hauntingly clear as if it was being shown to him at this very moment. How can he say that so flippantly? The man died in the most gruesome way and here was Shane just bringing up the other’s fate like he was discussing the weather. Regardless of how the other’s comment made him feel sick to the stomach, Shane did have a point for if the car was in such a bad shape when it was found then what had the man’s body looked like? 

He’s reminded vividly of the figure he’d encountered along this road. The broken man with his neck snapped and covered in blood and glass. Had he seen him- the ghostly apparition of the man who died? It was possible. Of course a soul would find itself connected to the earthly tie of it’s death place, especially if the ghost had no idea that it was dead in the first place. Wracking his brain he tries to connect the dots on the man’s death and the strange hallucination he’d had. 

Both were seen on the same road, both had injuries that could be inflicted by an accident… and that was about it. Not much to go off but when had that ever deterred him?

The environment outside the car passed by as nothing more than blurred outlines and Ryan gave up on his musings over the dead end it had resulted him with. Sparing a glance at Shane who was focused forward on the road before them Ryan spoke up. “uh- have you ever been to this region before?” He asked into the silence of Shane’s words, hoping to change the subject from the dark topic that had arisen between them. 

The taller man sent him an easy grin before returning his focus back to driving. “nope! Never been in my life” 

Strange. The response contradicted Shane’s previous words on the accident, seeming as Ryan had researched this region in all corners of the web and no reference to the accident was available. Except only local people such as the old woman from earlier knew of the incident, not vagabond tourists from across the sea. With his previous musings on the matter and his curiosity for Shane’s nature peaked, Ryan couldn’t help but blurt out his current thoughts. “wait… then how did you know about the accident? It was only reported in the local news” 

Almost like a total flip in attitude, the grin slipped off the other’s face, expression growing neutral as he regarded Ryan in the passenger seat beside him. Heart jolting in his chest with anxiety Ryan couldn’t help but stare at the other nervously. Was this it? Had Shane really been a murdered and he was just biding his time, hoping that Ryan would say something to him so he’d have the excuse to hack him to pieces.  Fighting the urge to fidget at the look, Ryan pointedly looked at the road ahead of them feeling the prick of Shane’s eyes on him all the while. 

The smaller man wasn’t sure how long it was that the heaviness surrounded them, he was only sure of the expanse of the road ahead of them which continued to be revealed more and more as the car continued to drive forwards. 

His eyes turn to look at the time on the car’s dash after god knows how long of looking out at the darkened scenery before him. The time ‘ ** _3:33_** ’ shines back at him, a haunting number for more than one reason. His mind strays automatically to the story of the accident, the man had died around this time (at least that was what Shane claimed) which only sent his nerves through the roof. Not only that, but 333 was believed to be a number which demonic and evil spirits used to mock the Holy Trinity. The coincidence sent a shiver wrack him which had nothing to do with the cool air from the car’s air-conditioning.  

“mors sequitur” Shane murmurs into the silence welling between them, seemingly over or possibly pretending that the way their previous conversation ended didn’t exist.  

Ryan sent him a look at the words. “what?” He questions, thoughts flashing to the demonic entity he’d hallucinated about earlier. 

“oh nothing…” Shane dismisses quickly as if he didn’t mean for Ryan to hear. “it’s just some latin I’ve learnt” 

“ah” Ryan rubbed the back of his neck at the other’s vague reply, outside the car’s window it looked like a pair of neon-green eyes were watching him from the shadows. Unnerved by the sensation of being watched the smaller man turned to look at Shane to distract his thoughts. “I don’t really know any other languages. What does it mean?” He pried hoping to get something out of the taller man, but most likely testing his luck with all the questions spilling from his lips. 

Surprisingly, Shane turns to look at him in the lowlight, a thoughtful crease to his brow. “it’s just some words that I feel has summed my life up for decades” 

“oh”

A ghost of a smile graces Shane’s lips as he turns to look back at the road before him. “sorry if i’m acting a bit weird… I’m a little sleep deprived- er… no” his eye flickers to Ryan as if he were gauging his expression and whatever the other saw on his face must not have been good if the way he awkwardly continued to explain himself was anything to go by. “I think the proper phrase is jet-lagged?” 

There’s a pause that wells between them before Ryan caved. “long flight?” He threw the question out between them, decided to pity the taller man for he was more than happy to leave the tense atmosphere behind. 

“yeah” Shane agrees, the tension slipping from his shoulders in palpable relief. “time zones… am I right?” 

“it’s a bitch” the smaller man jokes. He wasn’t sure why but he felt as if he were at a cross-roads… as if anything he said to the other would impact whatever Shane saw within him. It was a ridiculous and illogical feeling but people had said that about other things in his life so why would he worry about that now? 

“we can always pull over if you want to rest” Ryan proposes after he watches a few trees pass by. “it’s not like I really have to worry about what time we reach Alice Springs thanks to all the shit I’ve encountered up until this point”

The taller man gives him an assessing look like he can’t believe the words coming out of Ryan as Shane looks over at him sitting in the passenger seat. “that so?” 

“yeah” 

Shane still gives him an unbelieving look as he returns his gaze to the road stretching before them. “i don’t think that will be necessary” he sends Ryan wink as he continues. “besides… there’s less traffic at night to worry about” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the ghoul boys meet (as promised) 
> 
> I have no idea where I'm going with this fic... (its more of an idea that's been bugging me) 
> 
> But regardless, I hope you enjoyed... 
> 
> until next time!


	4. love me like we don't have tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan's experience comes to a close 
> 
> but is it really the end?

 

The moon hung low in the sky above them, highlighting the dusty road as he sat in the passenger seat of Shane’s car. 

It was ten past four in the morning by the car’s dash and it gave the smaller man a bit of hope that they were finally making progress along the road. Perhaps if they don’t find the turn off for Alice Springs maybe it wouldn’t be long until the barest hints of dawn would appear and wash away the shadows shrouding the area, finally allowing the pair to see their surroundings clearer than they had for hours. 

Ryan wasn’t sure what he would have done if he hadn’t found Shane, most likely he would still be wandering the road in the dark, most likely miles back from where the car is now. With all that he’d seen along Ghost-Gum Road, the visions, the creatures… he didn’t particularly want to be alone. At least not tonight. 

Sparing a glance towards Shane, he allowed himself a moment to really look at the other. His light brown hair was falling into his eyes slightly, mused up by how many times he’d run a hand through his hair in thought. The headlights of the car reflected faintly on the pair of clear glasses which sat on the bridge of his nose, slightly skew by how many times Shane had rubbed the bridge of his noise as if he’d been suffering a headache. 

He feels a faint sense of guilt niggle at him as he looks at the other, Shane didn’t have to give him a lift all the way to where his friends were, the taller man could have just dropped him off at the nearest location they come across but he wanted to get Ryan there, for no other reason than to be kind. 

“i, uh. I haven’t properly thanked you for doing this… giving me a lift to Alice Springs that is” Ryan spoke up into the silence between then. 

Shane turns, sending him a smile that’s a tad soft at the edges. “no need. I couldn’t just leave you walking along that road forever” _forever_ … the way Shane spoke the word, it sounded like there was a weight behind it, a weariness. 

“i doubt it would be forever” Ryan jokes but the words fall hollow from his lips. It had felt like it, been forever that is- as he followed Ghost-Gum Road. 

The taller man hums, neither in agreement or disagreement. Before them the  barest hints of dawn was seeping into the deep navy of night above them. The stars slowly disappearing as the smallest rays of the sun appeared on the horizon. 

Something in the distance caught his eye, reflecting under the beam of the car’s headlights. Squinting as he leans forwards in his seat Ryan can’t believe his eyes as a sign slowly reveals itself. Before them the ’T’ section of the highway splits, one pointing to a town where as the other reds the words ‘Alice Springs’ 

“Alice Springs…” Ryan breathes the words almost reverently, unable to take his eyes off the deep green sign before them. 

Shane sends him an unreadable look, the orange light of the indicator illuminating him in slow flashes as he turns in the direction of the region. “that’s where you wanted to go, right?” 

“yeah. I-i just…” the words die in his throat. Shane would definably see him as a nut-case if he said he’d been seeing strange things the whole time he was on Ghost-Gum Road. “didn’t expect we’d get here so uh, quickly” 

The taller man returns his gaze to the road before them, huffing a faint laugh. “yeah. Me neither” 

With hardly a jolt, the car merged from the dusty dirt-road and onto the dark tarred road. The sound of the road beneath the tires a welcoming noise from the gravelled hiss of the terrain of Ghost-Gum Road. 

Around them, the native flora of the region was more scarce, the red-soil more common to see outside his passenger window than plants of any kind. The tension leaves his shoulders as Ryan’s eyes slid shut in relief. It was over… he had finally gotten off Ghost-Gum Road. 

 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

Ryan’s eyes slid open to find himself alone in a car, neon lights blinding him. Groggily he raised a hand to rub his eyes to help wake himself up as his tired mind caught up to the situation. Had he dreamed everything he’d seen? Blinking he noted the u familiar dash of the car before him, noting he was in the passenger seat rather than the driver’s seat. 

Jolting upwards he sent a panicked glance around the region. He was in a hotel parking lot, that was evident enough by the tall buildings before him and the sign closest to him which read ‘Rooms Available’ 

He’s broken by his thoughts at the driver’s seat door opening. Whipping his gaze to the side he’s greeted with the familiar face of Shane Madej. “sorry for startling you… I decided to check if this was the hotel you were staying at while you slept” 

“oh… you didn’t have to do that” Ryan replied, voice rough from sleep. 

The taller man shrugged before holding up a pair of keys. “third time lucky… this is the hotel” 

“third time lucky? What do you mean?” 

Shane sent him a sheepish look. “i… I might have been checking each hotel we came across to see if it was the one you checked into too” 

Fully awake now, Ryan all but gaped at the other. “y-you could have just woken me up and asked!” 

An embarrassed flush came over the other’s features endearingly. “yeah” he muttered awkwardly as he slid into the driver’s seat. “well… I found it now, so, no need to worry about the small details” 

Shaking his head at the other’s antics, Ryan couldn’t help the grin from overcoming his face as Shane drove towards a parking spot closer to Ryan’s designated room. 

Once Shane cut the engine the two sat in silence for a moment, neither of them moving.

 “uh… walk me to the door?” Ryan proposed into the silence between them. 

Shane turned to him, a disbelieving look overcoming his features before he schooled them. “o-of course… wouldn’t want you to get lost” he teased as they exited the four-wheeled-drive. 

They both walked painfully slow towards Ryan’s hotel room, not that any of them wanted to point it out. Lights from the hotel casting Shane’s figure in a flattering light that Ryan couldn’t keep his eyes off. 

Too soon did Ryan’s room appear before them “well… here it is” Shane commented, casting a forlorn gaze to the door.

“yeah” the smaller man agreed, hands fiddling with the keys in his hands as the pair stand awkwardly outside the hotel door shrouded in the white glow of the hotel’s lights as once again neither of them moved to leave. 

“oh!” Ryan gasps after a pause, eyes alight in shock as a thought dawned on him. “happy new year!” 

Shane blinks at him like the fact it was a new year didn’t seem to matter to him. “ah… it is too” he replies, a sheepish expression gracing his features. “i didn’t realise we’d missed it” 

Ryan looks back at him with a thoughtful crease to his brow. “and I didn’t even get a new years kiss” 

The taller man gave him a double take. “no?” He questions, gaze roaming Ryan’s face. 

“nope!” Ryan repeats. As he looks at the other’s unsure expression he decided to take the matter into his own hands. Reaching up to fix the collar of Shane’s button up he gaze the other a pointed look. “we can’t have that” 

This time Shane’s eyes lit up in recognition. “oh” he mumbled shyly.  

“can I kiss you?” Ryan asks bluntly as he caught the other’s eye. 

“yes” Shane breathes the confirmation before slowly leaning down to capture the other’s lips. 

It was the barest brush of a lips at a languid pace not hurried or desperate in any way. In amongst getting caught up in Shane’s lips against his Ryan felt Shane’s arms wrap loosely around his waist as they continued to kiss. When they finally parted for air, Shane’s hair was sticking up faintly in places where Ryan had run his hands through it. 

“stay with me?” The words escaped him before he could stop them, a flustered red creeping up his neck. 

Shane looks down at him, something hidden in his eyes as he looks back at the smaller man. “as long as I can” he replies before capturing the other’s lips. 

They only broke apart so that Ryan could unlock the hotel room, hands barely taking the keys out the door before Shane shuts the door behind them. Gently he placed a hand next to Ryan’s head as he bracketed the smaller man against the closed door. “are you sure you want this? I-i don’t expect anything from you” Shane asks seriously as he caught Ryan’s eye. 

Ryan stares at the other for a moment, taking in Shane’s features as if he were committing them to his memory. “i do… and I know you don’t” he pauses as he sends a smile to the other. “but I want to” he admits as he surges to capture the other in a searing kiss. 

Gripping the collar of Shane’s floral button up, Ryan slowly lead the other further into the room until the back of his knees met the edge of the hotel bed. Here he let go of the other’s shirt as he sent a flirty smirk to the other as he laid back on the bed his body hit the plush mattress on the bed with a faint ‘ _thump_ ’. 

Without much persuading Shane followed him soon onto the bed, hovering over Ryan as he just eyed him overly at a leisurely pace. Ryan felt almost pinned under that gaze- with the way Shane looked at him in the warm lowlight of the hotel room. Before he Ryan can question it further Shane drops his head to mouth at Ryan’s neck, trailing opened mouth kisses up the column of his throat. Unlike there shared kiss outside the hotel door, this time their kisses felt rushed, desperate. 

“delightful… you’re absolutely delightful” Shane murmurs lowly, breath fanning across tanned skin. 

Ryan drags his hands through Shane’s soft hair as Shane begins to kiss his jaw. “says you” he manages to retort weakly, voice sounding more breathy then he would have liked it to be. 

The hum that Shane gives in reply reverberates against him as Shane once again moved to hover over Ryan, hands moving to bracket Ryan against the bed. Hooded warm-brown eyes caught his and soon he’s meet with the strong press of Shane’s lips on his own. His hands caught in those light locks as he raked his fingers through it, strands parting though the gaps in his fingers like water between rocks. Ryan’s almost overwhelmed by just the weight of Shane brushing against him, his thighs bracketing Ryan’s sinfully.

Too soon does Shane break the kiss between them and it left him even more breathless to see the other look at him in return with such fire burning in his eyes. Overcome with building emotion Ryan dragged Shane’s head back down to catch the other in a passionate kiss. The other’s teeth bit his lip and rather than the metallic tang diminishing the heat burning him up, it only fanned it’s flames. A groan escaped him unprecedented and Shane’s seemed to chase it as he deepened the kiss with a harsh press of his lips before pulling back to trail his tongue over the stinging flesh he’d previously bit in apology. 

Shane’s clothed knees bracket on each side of Ryan’s hips as he fully hovers of the other, giving himself more of an advantage to kiss the other more comfortably. Ryan released his hands from Shane’s hair only to drag his hands beneath the other’s shirt, moving upwards over the planes of muscle over his back. At this Shane pushed down against Ryan, leaving little to no room between them. Ryan broke the heated kiss between them, gasping as Shane began to kiss down the heated skin showing from Ryan’s open-collared shirt. 

“Shane” he whispered as if it was a prayer, the name pouring from his lips as he threw his head back on the pillow beneath him. 

“i’m here” Shane soothed, voice like velvet as he brought his lips back up to catch Ryan’s in a searing passionate kiss. His hands splayed down the other ribs, trailing over the bumps and dips before sliding down his sides, creeping closer downwards to grip the other’s hips as he rocks back on his heels. 

A groan escapes him at the loss of Shane’s lips, bringing his own arm upwards to cover his eyes in the crook of his arm as if he couldn't bear to look at the other a moment longer. He feels more than hears Shane’s resulting laugh as Shane trails his lips upwards from the band of Ryan’s underwear, kissing the expanse of skin as he made his way upwards across the revealed skin. 

As he neared Ryan’s face he stared down at the other, something hidden in his eyes as he caught those dark eyes. Unable to look at that look any longer Ryan surged upwards and caught the other’s in a kiss, felt the desperation behind every action the Shane gave him. He wasn’t sure why the other kissed him like his life depended upon it, why his eyes glistened in the lowlight like the stars above them. 

But before Ryan has the voice to ask the other rocks against him, mouthing along Ryan’s collarbone all the while, and Ryan’s thoughts scatter- utterly broken with the way Shane lavished him with care just shy of love. 

Shane kissed Ryan like a man desperate for water, drinking in all of Ryan beneath him. There was something hidden behind his eyes when moments in their passion he’d just catch the other’s eye with a reverence that Ryan couldn’t begin to comprehend why. He only knew that soon their clothes were thrown discarded on the hotel floor, only feeling skin against skin in the late hours of the night. 

Ryan didn’t really know how it happened, only knew Shane and his devilish charm and passion as the pair became tangled in the sheets. Burning up in flames as he lost himself to the other in the throes of their shared passion, trying to avoid being overwhelmed in the passion the other gave him so readily. There was no denying that Shane was a generous lover, giving all that he had to offer- all the passion and care all but pouring  from him as kissed the lines of Ryan’s body.

 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

Ryan woke the next morning, utterly boneless as he stirred with the light peaking through the shutter of his hotel room. His arm blindly reached out beside him only to find empty space. 

He stirred, memories from last night crashing down upon him- of warm eyes, searing kisses and heated skin. Raising his head he groggily rose from the rustling linen sheets, casting a look around the small hotel room. “Shane?” He called as he stretched his aching muscles. “you there?” 

Besides the sounds of birds in the distance, silence meet his words and he fought the rising disappointment that surged in his chest at being utterly alone. 

He made his way towards the small kitchen of the room, bare feet hitting the cool tile floor as he did so. His thoughts wandered as the coffee brewed, eyeing the empty counter-top with faint annoyance. “obviously wasn’t a good enough fuck for an explanation note” Ryan grumbled bitterly as the kettle bubbled and hissed beside him.  

Sure, the walk of shame wasn’t exactly something people liked to broadcast and, well, Ryan wasn’t exactly a man who liked to have one-night stands and meaningless sex. It was fairly remarkable that he’d even ended tangled up with Shane in the first place, the guy wasn’t even expecting any kind of payment for his kindness. 

Shane had drawn him and lured him in with those warm eyes and charming grin. It felt almost trance like when they’d ended up together, almost divine in the way Shane worshiped him in amongst their shared passion. Scowling he casts a glare at the white porcelain mug before him to rid himself of the thoughts. It was stupid of him to get caught up in the other, he’d only known the man for twenty-four hours for gods sake! 

His phone buzzed on it’s abandoned spot on his bed-side table. Leaving the kettle to boil Ryan made his way over to his phone to see his phone lit up in an array of missed messages from the night before. 

_(12:15) Devon: hope the investigation is going well. See you soon._

_(12:49) Devon: surely you’re done now? Text me when you’re on the road_

_(1:02) Devon: no text? R u ok?_

_(1:23) Devon: right. No signal. Text me when you can._

_(1:50) Devon: TEXT ME NOW._

_(1:55) Devon: RYAN I STG_

_(2:00) Devon: I will murder you myself when I see you again :)_

_(2:03) Devon: pls be ok._

_(2:08) Devon: will look for you in the morning. Hang on until then_

_(6:58) Devon: APPARENTLY YOU CHECKED INTO THE HOTEL WITH SOMEONE??? WITHOUT LETTING ME KNOW UR OK._

_(7:01) Devon: U R DEAD._

_(7:14) Devon: meet us @ hotel cafe_

Ryan groaned as he read through the messages left for him. Devon was going to be pissed when she met him. She would also undeniable want answers and ask about Shane. Blearily he managed to type out a reply in hopes she would be a little more forgiving. 

**(Now) Me: Alright. Meet you there in 10 mins.**

_(Now) Devon: K._  

Cringing, Ryan turned to lock the phone off. Heaving a sigh his graze slid towards the bathroom door. Well, better get a shower to wake himself up before the undeniable grilling he was going to receive. 

It wasn’t to soon after that he stood in the hotel’s shower. The warmth of the spray washing away the tension he hadn’t realised he was holding. Droplets feel from his hair as he ducked his face under the spray. Enjoying the sensation as he just stood there for a few minutes.Although with the thought of meeting up with the other looming above him, Ryan hurried to wash himself and get dried. Stepping out from the bathroom, steam curled its way into the rest of his hotel before he shut the door. 

Shrugging on the closest pair of clothes, Ryan grabbed his phone and hotel keys as he left. There wasn’t anything else he had left in the hotel anyway. 

As he hurried to reach the cafe in time, he could feel the way the tips of his hair was still damp from his shower but It wouldn’t matter, it would dry soon with this humidity of the region. Above him the sun was shining, barely a cloud in the sky. It was a welcome sight to the endless dark skies he had seen all those hours ago. 

Last night Shane had been so clear on how he didn’t expect anything from Ryan. The way he kissed him and spoke to him only showed that Shane was a man who didn’t use others. So then why had he just gotten up and left Ryan alone in the hotel without even a note to explain why. Fighting down a sigh of frustration, Ryan slid his gaze to the hotel grounds. Tropical plants lined the wooden walkway he was walking along, the colour stark against the white paint of the hotel exterior.

In the distance the Cafe was came closer into view and Ryan fought down the nervousness that reared itself within him. As he met the door, to the cafe he breathed in deeply before he entered, eyes drawn to the familiar figures of his crew sitting on the far end of the cafe by the window that overlooked the hotel gardens. 

“nice shirt” was the first thing Devon said to him as he came into speaking range of the group. 

 Looking down he was greeted with the sight of a deep blue and rich pink floral button up. That… was not the shirt he was wearing yesterday, that was Shane’s shirt he was wearing. Cursing the stupidly handsome man, Ryan dumped himself in the chair the crew had left for him, which was opposite Devon. Shit. That wasn't co-incidental at all, the buggers.  

“ah… yeah” Ryan managed to spit out as he rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous tick. 

Devon turned to him with murder in her eyes but thankfully Ryan was saved as a waitress came to get their orders. He wasn't going to be lucky when the waitress left though. 

Reluctantly he dragged his gaze to Devon sitting across from him. “so… how the hell did you end up shacking up with someone when you were supposed to be out exploring a remote reserve?” 

The rest of the crew turned their gaze to him, just as curious as Devon was. 

“er. it’s a long story” Ryan tried to placate. 

“i’ve got time” 

Internally cringing the smaller man looked down at the table they were sitting at. “alright. It wasn't meant to happen- meeting Shane- I mean” taking in a breath Ryan recited what had happened to him last night, minus the supernatural occurrences. “After I explored the reserve I went to get onto the correct highway to Alice Springs but I got lost after I realised I didn’t have the map on me… nor a GPS to use. So, I got onto a road, Ghost-Gum Road, where my rent-car broke down. I walked along the road where I met Shane who offered to give me a lift to Alice Springs” 

“Shit!” Devon cursed, an apologetic look gracing her face. “I’m sorry for being mad at you, Ryan, I was just worried” Devon replied into the pause that followed his words. 

“it’s alright” he sent a grin to her in reassurance. “i would be too if it was you in this situation” 

The atmosphere was lighter after that, and all was well after the group ate their food. That was until someone asked the question Ryan had been dreading someone to ask.

“so where’s this Shane now?” T.J spoke up for the first time Ryan had been in their company. 

The smaller man couldn’t help the frown that formed at the question. “I don't know” he replied, taking a sip of his drink to have an excuse not to elaborate. 

“you don’t know?” 

“no” he replies curtly as he caught T.J’s disbelieving look. “All I know is he’s not here” Ryan replied, trying to keep the tension out of his voice. 

A semi-awkward silence followed his reply as the crew finished up their breakfast. Ryan only felt party bad it was his fault but hey, he deserved to be a little bitter about it, he deserved it after all the shit he’d encountered the day before. 

“will we look for your rent-car after this?” Devon asked after a significant amount of silence. 

Shit. He hadn’t even thought about his things still sitting in his rent-car. “yeah. My laptop and research for Unsolved is still there” 

“damn. Sounds like a plan then” Devon mused and the rest of the crew nodded their agreement. 

 

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

Ryan didn’t particularly want to be back on Ghost-Gum Road, after the endless driving he’d done previously he was more than happy to have another member of the crew drive while he sat in the passenger seat of the rent-car. 

The red road stretched out before them although it looked fairly harmless in broad daylight. 

“how far along did you break down?” Devon broke into the sound of the ambient noise of the car radio. 

That was a good question but hell, Ryan had no clue. “uh… about half-way?” He guessed as he spared a look to Devon in the driver’s seat. “Im not entirely sure, it was too dark to tell” It wasn’t exactly a lie for it was too dark to tell how far along he’d broken down. 

Nervous rising with every passing hour Ryan couldn’t help but feel anxiety crash in his chest as he stared forwards at the familiar dusty road continuing on and on and _on and on and_ - 

“there!” A call from the backseat broke his frantic thoughts god-knows how many miles along the road. 

He follows their gaze to spot his abandoned rent-car nestled amongst a group of native grass plants, the reed like stems partially hiding the car. 

Devon pulled over slowly, crawling to park next to his abandoned rent-car. 

Piling out of the car, the crew gathered around Ryan’s rent car as the smaller man unlocked the car. Reaching over, he collected his belongings from the passenger seat floor and passed them over to Devon who in turn placed them safely into her own car. 

The rest of the crew worked to get the remaining technology out of the backseat as T.J came to stand at his side. “i’ll check underneath the car for any issues” he informed as he went to get to work. 

While T.J was checking for anything amiss, something caught under the wind-screen wiper caught Ryan’s eye. Brow burrowing, he reached out to unhook the paper from it’s pinned position. Expecting some kind of parking ticket or police note Ryan blinked at the mysterious note in his hands.

“the car’s fine… nothing amiss at all” T.J inform, a tint of confusion in his voice. 

Although for Ryan the other’s words only registered absently as he stared down at the cryptic paper in his hands. 

‘ _F U N A R - Z N Q R W_ ’ 

The note read and it took a moment for Ryan’s mind to catch on and remember all those True Crime stories he read as he realised the note was not gibberish but actually a Caesar Cipher of a pair of 5 letter words. It was obvious that whoever left the note for Ryan wanted him to solve it and get the message. 

When he set out the alphabet in two rows of thirteen letters he found the letters to read; ‘ _SHANE - MADEJ_ ’ 

“Shane Madej” he muttered aloud in disbelief, eyes caught on the scrappy paper. Could the note be possibly referencing _his_ Shane? The man he had spend the night with? Possibly… but why then was it tucked under the windscreen wiper of his miraculously fixed rent-car? 

Was it a warning that Shane was the one that entity was tracking down? A clue that Shane Madej was actually the one all those years ago that had crashed and died? Or perhaps it was a last farewell from an enigmatic man? 

Countless thoughts ran through his head as he stared at the crumpled paper in his hands. _’If I knew what I was getting into today, I wouldn’t have gone to explore that ghost town location in the middle of the Australian Outback for the latest episode of Unsolved. If I knew what happened later on I would have agreed to go in the car with T.J and the rest of the crew, not by alone. If I knew what laid ahead I would have listened to the countless warnings and turned around but I just couldn’t say no when my curiosity reared it’s head’_ The symbols on the paper taunted him and his thoughts turned to Shane. ‘ _Perhaps I shouldn’t have let myself be drawn to that stranger and his warm brown eyes? I should have but I didn’t…’_

Standing on that red-soil road, Ryan mused on what had passed and mused that perhaps he’d never know the answer to his countless thoughts and it seems for once it would be his own case which would remain unsolved. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, that's the first time I've written a scene like that (lol sorry if it was horrible) 
> 
> this work isn't over yet for I've got an interlude planned and then you will see the situation from Shane's perspective. 
> 
> anyway I hope you enjoyed... until next time!


	5. Interlude (Shane's perspective)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interlude introducing Shane's perspective.

 

 

_T_ _wenty years ago Tourist Shane Madej drove along Ghost-Gum Road._

 

_January 1st 1998… on that fateful new years he had crashed his rent-car into a cluster of Eucalyptus trees and died on impact._

 

_Everyday he relieved the same moment, stuck in an endless loop where he inevitably crashes his car at 3:33 am._

 

_That is until he finds himself in a loop where he meets a stranger by the name of Ryan Bergara walking along the dusty red road._

****

_Will he be the key to finally ending this time loop once and for all?_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of this work will from Shane's point of view  
> so, some parts will overlap with previous events. 
> 
> NOTE: I think this goes without saying but there is Major Character Death in the rest of this work...  
> Although seeming as this is a time loop it isn't straight forward, so heads up if Character Death isn't your thing.


	6. travelling the road to nowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into some various time-loops Shane had endured before he met Ryan 
> 
> (WARNING: car accidents and injuries related to these accidents)

 

His eyes threaten to slide closed with every blink he took, trying to pull his tired brain to focus on the vast red soil road before him. It seems to go on and on for miles, highlighted only by the moon which hung low on the horizon before him, an orange tint to it’s hue. 

Glancing downwards, Shane mused on how long it would take to get to Darwin at this rate. ‘ **3:33** ’ the time reads on his dash, the glow from the numbers almost blinding to his tired eyes. Well, judging by the time not anytime soon, damn this cursed road. 

All but dragging his gaze back to the road before him, Shane Madej heaves a tired sigh as he squints at the road before him. Although the moment his gaze fixed back to the road something passed before his gaze. 

Eyes widening- his tired brain takes a moment to realise it is a Kangaroo which had crossed his path. Reflexes a beat to slow, he all but yanks the wheel to the side, the movement harsh as he does so. The wheel beneath his hands gives an uncontrollable yank in the opposite direction while the car swerves in a wide arc. 

Even with his hands griping the steering wheel in a vice grip and the sound of the tires screeching with the strain of his foot pressing desperately on the break, he can only stare horrified as a bunch of Eucalyptus trees come hurdling closer and closer to him. 

The moment his rent-car smashed into the trees, the force yanked him forward as glass rained around him, his body thrown forwards as his head moves opposite. The airbags burst around him in the symphony of chaos and all he feels is an overwhelming pain as his neck is thrown to the side at an unnerving speed, the ‘ _snap_!’ echoing in his ears detectable over the other sounds of crushed metal and splintering wood. 

It is the last thing he hears as his gaze fades to black… 

 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

The last thing he remembered was the sickening sound of his own neck snapping and then darkness…. 

Chest heaving in panic Shane’s eyes flew open, instinctively patting himself down with shaking hands. Before him Ghost-Gum Road seemed to continue on for miles. Breath catching in his throat Shane stared forward at the familiar red-road before him. He _was_ driving along the road, well currently his car was stationary with the force of his panic but that was besides the point. He was driving… not involved in a deadly accident. 

Hands tentatively reaching out to grip the wheel as he slowly continues to drive. Had he fallen asleep at the wheel and had that horrifically realistic dream? Shane wasn’t sure. Blinking to rid himself of lingering unease Shane felt as if he wasn’t even sleep deprived, the adrenaline he felt from his fright coursing through him. 

Outside his car the cicadas were deathly silent, despite the oppressive heat of the region. Unnerved by the still silence around him, his free hands drops from the wheel to turn the radio on. The sound dull drone of talk-back radio filling the deathly silence around him. 

He turns his gaze back the dusty red soil before him with a new-found ease as the sound of the radio continues to play. This was it… the best time to drive, in Shane’s opinion, in the early hours of the morning. That’s if you can deal with the sleep deprivation tugging at you while you drive. 

His goal was to arrive in Darwin by lunchtime or at least by 2 in the afternoon if it all goes to shit. 

He’d read about the location in a flier at the last hotel he’d stayed at, the unique red soils and distinctive landscape calling to him. 

He had talked to a local indigenous woman at a convenience store in order to ask her directions to Darwin. She’d warned him off from driving along Ghost-Gum Road, but he’d dismissed her warnings, chalking it up to paranoid superstitions… well, look where that got him. 

Glancing downwards habitually to the time, ‘ **3:33** ’ the numbers read on his dash, the glow from the numbers almost haunting in the lowlight and he fights the unwanted chill that fills him at the sight. Now, Shane wasn’t a man who believed in fate or superstitions or anything of the sorts but anyone would find co-incidence of the numbers at least a little strange. 

Huffing out a breath of laughter he turned his back to the road before him. Although, the moment his gaze fixed back to the road something passed before his gaze. 

Eyes widening- his rattled brain takes a moment to realise it is a Kangaroo which had crossed his path. Reflexes a beat to slow, he all but yanks the wheel to the side, the movement harsh as he does so. The wheel beneath his hands jolts in his hands with the strain of the rough terrain as the car swerves in a wide arc. 

Even with his hands griping the steering wheel in a vice grip and the sound of the tires screeching with the strain of his foot pressing desperately on the break, he can only stare horrified as a bunch of Eucalyptus trees come hurdling closer and closer to him. 

The moment his rent-car smashed into the trees, the force yanked him forward as glass rained around him, his body thrown forwards as his head moves opposite. The airbags burst around him in the symphony of chaos and all he feels is an overwhelming pain as his neck is thrown to the side at an unnerving speed, the ‘ _snap_!’ echoing in his ears detectable over the other sounds of crushed metal and splintering wood. 

It is the last thing he hears as his gaze fades to black…

 

//////////////////////////////////////////

 

Shane comes too with the endless rich red road before him. His hands shake against the wheel, he slows down to around 60km/hour. 

‘ _Think, Madej, think… what is the link between each of these scenarios?_ ’ He wonders as he stares out as far as the beam of his headlights can reach. He needs to think this through and work from there. Now, what has each of these loops consisted of? On the top of his head these were the constants so far; the rent car, himself, the kangaroo and the road itself.  

It’s not much to go off, but it will have to do for now. 

He seemed to be stuck in a loop, a scenario he had only read about in Sci-Fi books, wacky scientific journals or seen in crappy B-Grade movies. How was this even possible? The logical side of him questions, nagging at him to find out how this even happening. 

Would he ever really know? How many people had he encountered in his life previously had he encountered who were stuck in a loop like he was now? 

Reaching up the rub at the bridge of his nose, Shane could feel the tell-tale signs of a headache forming with the tension of the situation weighing down on him. 

He glanced habitually to the dashboard to see the time; ‘3:33’ the clock on his dash reads and Shane doesn’t have a minute to take in the weight of the number as he blinks—

 

/////////////

 

Blinking groggily as if he’d awoken from sleep, Shane finds himself once again on Ghost-Gum Road. He thumps a closed fist against the stern wheel in frustration. Although this time he noticed that the loop hadn’t ended like previous loops. He hadn’t hit the kangaroo and lost control, he’d just continued driving and once the time had hit ‘3:33’ the loop had reset itself like nothing had ever happened. 

Perhaps that was the key? Too continue different scenarios until something occurs to unlock the loop? he'd have too see...

 

//////// 

 

When he finds himself once again staring at the endless road, Shane makes his mind up. If he keeps getting in a crash he might as well try to avoid it by getting out the car. 

So that’s how he found himself standing beside his car, leaning against the warm metal of the four-wheeled drive. 

The stars twinkle above him in the vast clear skies above him. As his gaze caught on the sky above him it was the first time in so long that he felt at least a little at peace. 

Tears prickle at his eyes unwanted as his gaze seemed rooted on a particularly bright star above him. What had he done to deserve this? What had he done that warranted this fate? How had the world remembered him? Did anyone know what _exactly_ happened to him? 

His throat tightens as emotions crash in his chest. Ducking his head from the navy above him, he squeezed his eyes shut, tears streaming down his cheeks. Did anyone miss him? Of course they would… his thoughts stray to his family guiltily. They would be the ones who would have received the news that he had crashed and died in a foreign country. Would they have had to fly out to Australia to identify him? Only to return back to the States to bury him? The thoughts a depressing one… 

Not having the energy to get up and walk, Shane slide down to sit down against the warm metal of his rent-car. The soil beneath his legs is rough, he can feel the scarping even in his jeans as he stared hollowly into the darkness around him. 

He only feels numb as he once again finds himself sitting in the driver’s seat of his four-wheeled-drive. 

 

//////////

 

Walking… walking… his feet are continuously scratched by the red-soil that coats the region, the sand had made it’s way inside his shoes with each step.

He had ditched his rent-car miles back to walk blindly though the void-like darkness of Ghost-Gum Road. 

The sound of rustling vegetation sounds somewhere on his left and he turns to see the faint outline of something watching him from the shadows. The torch in his hands reflects a pair of neon-green eyes before he dismissed them with a sigh. 

“Even the animals couldn’t leave me alone” he grumbles aloud to himself as he continues to walk along the road. 

As he pans his flashlight over another particularly dense region, he’s met with three pairs of eyes watching him. These animals were closer this time so as he shines his light at them it’s not just the green-white refection of their eyes that is illuminated but their bodies as well. 

Shane blinks in surprise as he stares back at three kangaroos. He’s not particularly excited to see the mammals, seeming as it is a kangaroo that causes his death. 

“hey there” he greets softly to the animals, coming to a halt as he looks at them. 

They stand still, almost statue like as they just watch him. Shane isn’t sure how long he watches them, in a sort of staring contest with the animals. He’s only jolted from his spaced-out thoughts as one of them began to hop it’s way further into the bushland. It’s family follows it, turning and retreating back in the bushland. 

Honestly, he’s not even shocked when the next time he blinks he’s back in the driver’s seat of his rent-car, starring down the dirt-road before him. 

 

//////// 

 

As the drove along the rough terrain road his thoughts wandered, hardly even concentrating on where has driving as he got lost in his own musing.  

Can a lone person change the corse of their own fate? It's a question proposed over and over again. Once Shane would have scoffed at the question for yes, someone can… depending on the situation that is. 

Take himself for example, it was all of his decisions he’d made previous that lead to this situation. For example; how he decided to travel to Australia… now, when he got here he had six states to chose from and two territories. Now, he had gone with the state of New South Wales first… but what if he had gone to another one? 

If he had gone to a different state he might have gone to the same places but he would have met different people, said things differently than he would have if he had gone to New South Wales first as he planned. 

Anyway, this leads him to now. If he had heeded that indigenous lady’s warning at the small town’s convenient store he would have never of traveled along this road, along Ghost-Gum Road. He would never have been involved in the car accident and been pulled into Time Loop as a result. 

Perhaps if he had a brief nap or stopped at the hotel he had seen a few miles before he turned off for Ghost-Gum Road he may have been able to avoid the Kangaroo without losing control of his rent-car. Honestly, the possibilities where endless. A continuous query of; what if?  

Possibility over possibility ran through his mind as he drove mindlessly along the blood-red soil. So caught up was he that he nearly didn’t notice the way his dashboard hit ‘3:33’ and reset the loop until he noted the familiar patch of trees his rent-car had wrapped itself around the first time he’d crashed the car in the loops cycle.  

 

/////////////////////// 

 

How long? How long will he be force to live the same moment over and over again? He isn’t sure where incomes from, this deep anger that suddenly builds up inside him. 

There’s something different this time, Shane can feel it as he stares forwards. The moon’s light illuminated the road before him. 

Frustration rearing its head he stares forwards as he presses down the accelerator button. His rent-car gives a noise of disagreement as he slowly gains speed. 

_90 km/h_

_100 km/h_

_110 km/h_

_120 km/h_  

_130 km/h_

Further and further the speed gauge climbs, the engine roaring as he pushed the car faster and faster as if he could race his way out of the loop. 

Knuckles white on the steering wheel he stares forwards at the empty road and he cant help the hysterical laugh that escapes him, the sound barely audible over the road of his rent-car’s engine. 

He’s been stuck here so long. So long… The moon was low in the sky above him tinted an eery orange as it hung low over the road ahead of him. It seemed to stretch endlessly before him, snaking up and down over the small crests that littered the land.

The trees outside his rent-car pass-by as nothing more than a blur. Sparing a glance to his rear-view he’s greeted with the reflection of the red-dust being kicked up as his car speeds along the dirt road. 

Eyes returning to the road he doesn’t even have the time to scream as the abrupt flash of headlights blinds him before he collides head-on with the other vehicle in an screech of tires and telling sound of metal crumpling like paper. 

 

//////////////////

 

When he opens his eyes to find the red-dirt of Ghost-Gum Road, he swears to himself that he wont involve other’s in his plans… he doesn’t want the way for him to get out of the loop to be the blood of an innocent bystander. 

His previous plan had woken him up to that, reminded him of the humanity he must retain despite the strain of the endless loop.  

 

/////////////////

 

The next time he finds himself looking at the road, a thought occurs to him. If his car can’t move forwards then perhaps it wont result in an accident involving him or any other people 

Climbing out his rent-car with a rented vigour, Shane dropped down to kneel against the rich red soil that coated the region. This close to the ground as he crawled under the car, the grains had all but coated every part of him, getting into the small crevices of his clothes. 

The flashlight in hand, he shines the light directly up at the fuel line. 

He’d kept a pocket-knife in the back of his car, in case he had run into some kind of situation that warranted it. 

He grabs the item, swapping to the jagged-edged knife. Forcefully he jams the thing right into the fuel line as hard as he can. He pushed it as far as he can before he begins to jaggedly pull the knife downwards, attempting to create a crack in the part. 

It’s slow work at first- nothing more than droplets of fuel trailing down from the knife and down his arm still hacking at the plastic casing. 

But soon enough as he continued to widen the crack, fuel soon starts to gush down, coating his skin and the soil beneath it with the liquid. Shane doesn’t even have the energy to feel disgusted at the feeling, only relief that his mad plan actually worked. 

Crawling his way back out from under the car, the red-rich soil sticks to him even more so thanks to the fuel covering him. 

Rocking back on his heels, he leans tiredly agains the door of his rent car

 Closing his eyes in relief he sits there with his eyes closed, just listening to the sound of the bushland around him. 

Eyes slowly re-opening he’s back in the rent car. Blinking as his mind caught up to him he cursed aloud in frustration, berating himself for even thinking something like that would even work to break the loop he was eternally in. 

 

////////////

 

Shane heaves a tired sigh as he squints at the road for the seemingly millionth time before him and absently he registers the moment of something before his windscreen.

Eyes widening at the early arrival of the mammal- his distracted brain takes a moment to realise the gravity of the situation as all but forces the wheel to the side harshly and the steering-wheel beneath his hands gives jolts in his tight grip while the car swerves uncontrollably in a wide arc. 

He can only stare numbly as a bunch of Eucalyptus trees come hurdling closer and closer to him. 

The moment his rent-car smashed into the trees, the force yanked him forward as glass rained around him, his body thrown forwards as his head moves opposite. The airbags burst around him in the symphony of chaos and all he feels is an overwhelming pain as his neck is thrown to the side at an unnerving speed, the ‘ _snap_!’ echoing in his ears detectable over the other sounds of crushed metal and splintering wood. 

It is the last thing he hears as his gaze fades to black…

 

////////////////

 

As his vision come into focus, Shane notes vaguely that it was the the first time in countless loops that he’d once again experiences his death in such vivid detail. It didn’t rattle him as much as it used to… weirdly he’d grown almost desensitised to his own death. 

Shaking his head to remove the morbid thoughts, Shane stared at the road ahead of him in thought. 

It takes only a few miles along the road at a point where the bushland around him looked particularly dense that Shane had the idea of attempting to take parts out of his rent car. 

All but slamming the door of his rent-car Shane drops to his knees to send a glance under his rent-car. 

With the beam of his headlights on, it illuminated the underside of his car enough so he could tamper with the parts. 

As he stares fuming at the under-side of his rent-car he curses aloud on the fact that he had no tools on him to actually get rid of the part even if he wanted to. 

Rocking back on his heels, Shane stays that way with his knees pressed to the sandy-soil until the clock hits ‘3:33’ and he’s back sitting in that familiar leather seat, staring down the road before him. 

 

//////////////

 

Around six miles of driving an obscure thought comes to him. What if he drove _backwards_? 

Now if someone had mention that to Shane’s face he would have laughed in their face but really, he was becoming desperate now… he needed to try it to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. 

The best way to make it seems as though he wasn’t losing his mind was to think of it like a science experiment. So, you’ve got a bunch of variables that you need to work with, each slightly a bit different to one another but fundamentally the same. In this case, Shane was dealing with the issue of the car. The car was the variable he was testing by changing little things up with it in order to test the loop.

Even trying to make it sound logical just made it sound like an even more stupid idea but but he’d have to try it, just to sure. 

Shaking his head, he pressed his foot down on the reverse-pedal. Moving in reverse the environment outside his car passes by as nothing more than blurred outlines. 

Around a mile in he turned on the radio to break up the monotony of driving. 

Vaguely Shane mused with amusement that the music should be going backwards to complete the scenario before he dismissed the thought. 

Looks like he was going insane after all…

 

////////

 

How long had it been now? How many months? _Years_? 

Gritting his teeth in desperation he pulls the steering wheel harshly to the side without thinking about it. “it’s not happening this fucking time” he growls over the screech of tires. “i’m going to end this… without casualties” 

His car jolts as he hits off-road soil despite being built for rough road for his rent-car wasn’t built for people going 100 km/h over rocks and native plants.  

A group of kangaroos bound away as he cuts through the underbrush. Eyes reflecting a greenish-white under the beam of the headlights. 

He jolts in the leather seat, his seat-belt pinching him as he jolts. Frustrated he clicks off the offending things and relished in the freedom it gives him. 

The car shifts side to side, unsteady with the rocky terrain Shane’s hurdling across. Pressing the accelerator harder, his rent car’s tires screech and Shane’s thrown around like a rag-doll. His car’s suspension all but creaks, the screech of jagged rocks.  

So caught up in trying to stay firmly against the seat was Shane that he failed to notice the unsteady soil lining the downwards decent. Lining the drop are boulders and jagged sandstone rocks.  

Unable to correct his course with the speed he’s been going- well over 100km/h his car hits a particularly rough rock. The front of his car hit’s it with a hard jolt- the metal grinding and caving in on itself and suddenly Shane’s thrown forwards without his seat-belt keeping him place, all but hurtling into the windshields as he’s thrown bodily from the vehicle.

Glass rains down around him, slicing him and pricking his skin like needles as he hits the windshield and smashed through it. 

Then he feels weightless for a moment as he’s airborne- it happens in slow motion for him as all the can do is stare wildly as the ground comes closer and closer towards him. He cant stop it- it only lasts less than a few seconds before limp body collides forcefully into the familiar blood-red soil.

 

/////////////

 

Eyes screwed shut he slowly opens them to reveal the familiar dirt-road, snaking it’s way before him.

He cant help the scream of frustration that leaves him, hitting his closed firsts against the steering wheel in desperation. 

What is this? Some kind of purgatory? If Shane were a religion man he’d be tempted to get on his knees and pray to whatever god would help him out of this nightmare. 

But he’s not. So reigning in his emotions and switches off that part of his brain that fears things. 

It’s easier that way… 

He doest feel up to trying anything drastic, not after what happened last time, so Shane continues to drive forwards and pretends just for a moment that he was driving to Darwin like he planned and not stuck in this endless loop of driving and dying over and _over and over_ - 

 

//////////////

 

When the loop restarted yet again, Shane sat in the stationary car with his forehead pressed firmly against the smooth casing of the steering-wheel. 

In the distance the sound of crickets and cicadas broke the monotonous silence of the night. 

He’s surprised when sitting stationary results in the loop restarting the moment he it 3:33… really, he should have been smarter than to hope that sitting still would be the solution to breaking the loop. 

 

//////////

 

Feeling utterly unimpressed Shane starts up the engine of his rent-car after his failed attempt at sitting in the car without driving. 

It feels like he only goes backward while every part of him screams to go ahead, to break this cycle he’s trapped in. How long has it been? It must have been years since he died on Ghost-Gum Road, stuck reliving the same day over and over again. Was this purgatory? Was this the sick punishment that was laid out for him because he made the wrong decision?

Familiar trees pass outside his window, the blurred forms of the eucalyptus trees speeding past. He’d tried everything to get out of the loop. He’d gotten out the car, walked along the road, crashed the car, cut the fuel gauge, took out parts of the car, drove backwards, drove forwards, didn’t drive at all…  he’d tried every idea that had come to him to no avail. 

Something shuffles on the road up ahead of him. Blinking Shane stares unbelieving as he notes that the thing is actually a figure which had been illuminated walking along the road. 

This close he can see how the stranger raised a hand upwards to cover their face under the beam of the car’s headlights. Mutely Shane could only watch in stunned disbelief as the figure stepped out into the middle of the road, waving their arms around to signal him to slow down. 

‘ _what have I got to lose? I cant just leave them here… even if it’s just a loop_ ’ Shane mused as he slowed to a crawl as he neared the stranger. He moves to lower the window down as the individual neared his passenger-side window. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor Shane... why do I hurt him so? 
> 
> also I've never written time travel/time loop stuff so i'm sorry if this is really messy and confusing.. 
> 
> Ps. don't worry, Ryan will be introduced next chapter so you won't have to worry about any more painful time-loops. 
> 
> until next time!


	7. Lost in the moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane travels with Ryan

 

Lowering the tinted window down closest the stranger to hear the other, the individual takes the chance to speak first. “hey there!” The stranger greeted confidently as he caught Shane’s gaze and Shane had to fight to keep his surprise from being obvious at the man’s American accent. A tourist… what were the odds? 

“Sorry to bother you at this hour but my car’s broken down a little further back and I was meant to meet up my friends in Alice Springs a little over an hour ago…” the man trailed off for breath before continuing with a hint of hesitancy. “would I, uh- be able to catch a ride to the nearest town?”

Shane couldn’t deny that the man was attractive with his dark hair and tanned skin. So making his mind up he sent the man his most charming grin to seem as non-threatening as possible. “of course… I saw your car a few miles back and wondered what it was doing there” of course that was a lie but judging how the other had pointed in his car being the way Shane had drove, it would make sense that Shane had seen it… it would make the other more likely to join him anyway. “why don’t you get in? we can sort the finer details along the way” 

The strangers relief was palpable as he rounded his way towards the passenger side of the vehicle. Opened the door to slide in beside Shane, the orange light of the indicator light blinking illuminated the other in a glow as the stranger clicked in his seatbelt. Once he was done, the stranger seemed to assess him in the lowlight. Engine rumbling Shane began to drive once again and outside the silhouetted gum trees passed by. 

He couldn’t fight the grin from spreading out on his face as he continued to feel the weight of the other’s eyes on him. “it’s not safe wandering around like this at night, anyone could be hanging around waiting for someone like you to abduct” Shane teased, a mischievous glint to his warm brown eyes.  

The reaction was priceless as the strangers face grew pale in horror. “i- y-you…” he spluttered, eyes frantically turning towards the door handle as if he were thinking of jumping out the moving vehicle. 

Shane chortled at the stuttering mess of a response, eyes crinkling at the force of his mirth and the image of the stranger diving out the car like some sort of action hero. “whoa whoa! i’m kidding! _God_ \- calm down, you look like you’re about to burst a blood vessel” 

“Christ!” The stranger cursed, a hand placing itself in the place over his heart. “why would you say something like that? I don’t even know you!” 

Entirely too amused, Shane chanced a look away from the road to give the other a once over, eyes dragging slowly to meet his dark eyes as he tried to sooth the other. “if I’d known you were the anxious type I would have avoided that introduction… i’m known to be quite strange and off-putting” he joked as his lips tugging into a grin. “the name’s Shane by the way” 

“Ryan” the stranger- _Ryan_ , responded tightly, a flush creeping up his neck.  

“nice to meet you Ryan” Shane greeted as he turned his attention back to the dark road ahead of them. Well, he might as well make the best of this loop while he can. “so what were you doing out in the good old Red Centre?” 

“i could ask you the same thing” Ryan retorted, raising a brow challenging. 

‘ _feisty_ ’ Shane mused as he let out an amused laugh, utterly unfazed by the other’s defensive attitude. “i am traveling around as I have been over the past few… weeks?” He responds but his comes off as more of a question than a definitive answer. Internally cursing Shane continued before Ryan can question him. “See the roads are just so much easier to travel on during the middle of the night” he mentions as casually as he could. “It’s quite therapeutic”

“where have you been?” Ryan asked and Shane can tell without looking that his expression is once of curiosity for his voice is just filled with it. 

“ooh… anywhere and everywhere but currently i’m heading to Darwin, in the Northern Territory. Australia is such a vast and diverse country, that I knew i’d have to come here and explore it myself” he reveals as he side-eyed Ryan in the passenger seat. Well, he _had_ been traveling to Darwin before he got caught up in this mess of a time loop but Ryan didn’t need to know that. “I’ll have you know i’m quite the vagabond” returning his gaze to the dusty road before them he questions the smaller man. “what led you to come here, Ryan? I can tell by your accent that you’re not a local” 

“no! I’m an American through and through” Ryan confirmed with a laugh before he sobered. “I’m-“ he faltered and Shane kept his face neutral as the other struggles to respond. “i’m out here with friends for a holiday. We went out to explore some haunted location out here but on my way back to the hotel we are staying at my rent-car broke down… right in the middle of nowhere” Ryan spares him a look only to find Shane already looking at him. “but you already know that” the smaller man finished with a teasing lilt to his words. 

It looks like Shane wasn’t the only one keeping a secret. As the notion occurred to him Shane couldn’t help but grin broadly. “i sure do” he agreed jovially before a thoughtful crease formed between his brow as another thought occurred to him. “hold on… did you say you went to go explore a haunted location?” 

Ryan ducked his head as if embarrassed by the question. “yes, i’m quite the believer in the supernatural and all that goes with it” he revealed, turning to gauge the other man’s reaction to the news.

Despite his own views as a skeptic, Shane wasn’t about to rain on the other’s parade. So instead he decided to joke around. “you dabble in the occult?” Strangely as he looks at Ryan he is met with the other’s fearful expression as if he’d seen something sinister in Shane’s grin. 

“n-no” Ryan denied uneasy. “i’m not exactly a fan of demons” he confessed, turning his attention to the bushland passing by his car-window. 

Frowning at the sudden nervous energy around the other Shane hummed turning his attention back to the road in order to give the other a bit of comfort. “i’m a skeptic myself” Shane confessed.“i reckon aliens could exist though… our universe is so expansive that we couldn’t be the only life out there” 

“well we agree on something then” Ryan mused lightly, the more casual atmosphere returning.

Encouraged, Shane’s continued on with the topic of extraterrestrials. “i think they wouldn’t be little green men though, more bacteria like or slug-like… simple celled organisms” 

Ryan sent the other a disbelieved look. “slugs? That’s the most boring thing I have ever heard” 

Shane let out a chuckle at the other’s comment before he expanded his reasoning. “it is logical though. Just think of our Earth millions of years ago… with all that fire and water. Life started on a simple cellular level, possible only occurring due to specific conditions and other forms of life started as simple prokaryotic organisms” he pauses here still keeping his eyes on the road. “It took us eons to progress to where we are today… so why couldn't aliens be less progressive than we are? Why are they always more than us in every way possible?” 

Into the thoughtful silence following his words Shane spared Ryan a glance out of the corner of his eye. “So… if you don’t mind me asking, where are your friends at?” 

“it’s alright” Ryan soothed, looking over at Shane in the low-light. “they’re at Alice Springs” 

“without you?” Shane queries, a surprised tint to his voice as he turns to look at the other. 

He caught Ryan’s slightly hysterical grin that overcomes his handsome features. “my plan… not theirs”

The response only made Shane all the more curious… what was he doing out here all alone? How had he even managed to enter one of Shane’s loops? In the span of twenty years of being stuck in this loop Shane had not personally encountered another person, sure people had managed to be around some of his loops but he hadn’t been face-to-face with them like he was now. Why was that?

His thoughts are broken as Ryan replied to some of his unvoiced questions. “i… when my friends and I were exploring the Reserve, the technology I was using was acting up, doing things it wouldn’t normally do. So, when my friends were ready to leave with the rather pathetic evidence we had, I told them I wanted to stay back for a bit. My friend- Devon- she wasn’t happy with me staying but I convinced her after a while” 

“sounds like a stupid plan” Shane scoffs, scowling at the empty open road before them as he’s reminded vividly of all of his failed attempts at breaking the loop. Although he’s jolted into remembering where exactly where he was as he sent the other a sheepish look as the significance of his insulting words dawned on him. “uh- sorry?” 

With baited breath Shane waits for the berating he’s expecting from the other before he’s shocked at the wheezing laugh escapes Ryan. The smaller man shakes his head as he spares a glance to Shane only to find him already eyeing him in the lowlight. “so that’s the story of how I ended up here, all alone, because I decided to explore the region for anything supernatural” Ryan concludes. 

“you’re not alone” Shane reminds the other, his own loneliness rearing its head as he eyes the man’s sculptures features in the lowlight. “not now” 

He’s only alerted to how his words sound as Ryan whipped his head around to stare at him in shock.  

Shane, unable to look at the other, feels a faint flush crawling it’s way up his neck but is once again surprised by the smaller man. “yeah… i’m not” Ryan agrees and Shane cant stop how his lips twitch with the barest hint of a smile before schooling his expression like the moment never happened.

It was too good to be true, this situation at hand. Sobering significantly he wonders how Ryan would react to him if he knew about what had happened to him. “did you hear about that man who died on this road?” Shane questioned, the words falling from him lips without much of a thought as the white ghost-gum trees outside passing by as nothing more than a blurred outline. 

Ryan shook his head “i don’t think so” he replies vaguely.   

“well…” Shane hums, turning his gaze turned to the road before them as be began to re-tell his life so far. “About twenty years ago a man around our ages was traveling along Ghost-Gum Road despite locals warning him of the evil happenings of the road. The man, who was a skeptic, brushed off their warnings and fears about the road believing it to be chalked up to superstition” 

“so, the man decided to travel at night on the idea that the road would be fairly empty and would allow him to reach his next destination quicker. It was around 2-3 in the morning that the man started to feel sleep deprivation tug at him. Although despite this, the man continued his journey only to find himself at in an unideal situation a few hours later” 

Shane glances out the corner of his eye to see Ryan frowning at his words. As he continues on, his words becoming more and more tense with frustration. “around half an hour as the night was beginning to show the barest hints of dawn, the man came face to face with a kangaroo which was migrating across Ghost-Gum Road. Startled, with slow reflexed he slammed on the breaks, swerving in hopes of missing the kangaroo. As he swerved to avoid the animal, the tires of his car lost traction on the road and spinning out of control his 4-wheeled drive slammed into a group of eucalyptus trees”  

He spared Ryan another glance as he finishes his tale. “that was how they found him the next day, dead at the wheel of his car… Either it was the force of the hit or the whiplash he received that snapped his neck on impact with the trees” 

“must have been going pretty fast to do that damage” Ryan replies shakily, obviously rattled by the tale. 

Although Shane’s are too far gone to notice the other’s reaction. “oh yeah… but regardless of the speed, just hitting those gum trees would have wrecked his car” he mutters the next past bitterly, feeling sorry for himself. “Let alone the man himself either way” 

“uh- have you ever been to this region before?” Ryan asked into the tense silence of Shane’s words. 

The taller man sent him an fake grin before returning his focus back to driving. “nope! Never been in my life” he stated with false cheeriness, hoping the other would leave the question be. 

Although that would be easy wouldn’t it? Of course the other would want to pry further. “wait… then how did you know about the accident? It was only reported in the local news” Ryan asked. 

The grin slipped off the other’s face, as his frustration rose to boiling point. He schooled his expression to go as neutral as he could as he sent a warning look to Ryan in the passenger seat beside him. 

In turn Ryan caught his eye, dark eyes glinting with nerves. Fidgeting at the look Ryan pointedly looked at the road ahead of them as Shane’s eyes on him all the while. 

The road continues, seemingly appearing again and again on the horizon as Shane drove. How long would it be now? He was apprehensive to look at the clock to read the time, not wanting to see the number ‘3:33’ reflected back at him and ending this scenario before he can really get to know Ryan. 

It wouldn’t matter anyway. He’d die at one point or enter another another loop, regardless if its 3:33 or not.  “mors sequitur” Shane murmurs absently into the silence, eyes on the road before him. Wouldn’t it just be the odds that a kangaroo would run across the road and kill them both? With the way Shane’s life had gone it was possible. Especially with how he’d sworn not to harm others in his attempts to break the loop, wouldn’t that be ironic? 

He’s broken by his morbid brooding by Ryan’s timid; “what?”

Sparing a look at Ryan he sees the other’s concerned expression in the lowlight. “oh nothing…” Shane dismisses quickly. “it’s just some latin I’ve learnt” 

“ah” Ryan rubbed the back of his neck, looking out the window for a moment before he turned to look at Shane once again. “I don’t really know any other languages. What does it mean?” He pried 

‘ _of course he’d ask_ ’ Shane muses as he looks back at the other, a thoughtful crease to his brow. “it’s just some words that I feel has summed my life up for decades” 

“oh” the smaller man mumbles, his disappointment in the cryptic answer palpable. 

A ghost of a smile graces Shane’s lips as he turns to look back at the road before him. “sorry if i’m acting a bit weird… I’m a little sleep deprived- er… no” his eye flickers to Ryan gauging the smaller man’s expression in case he linked the word to his tale earlier. At the other’s frown Shane continued to backtrack his words. “I-I think the proper phrase is jet-lagged?” 

There’s a pause that wells between them awkwardly and Shane feels a sense of dread as he stares at the red-soil road before them. He’s surprised when the smaller man broke the silence with a question of; “long flight?” 

“yeah” Shane agrees, tension slipping from his shoulders in relief, not wasting a moment he continues to latch onto the olive branch Ryan had extended to him. “time zones… am I right?” He lies nervously, eyes sternly on the road and not at Ryan. 

“it’s a bitch” the smaller man jokes before he continues seriously. “we can always pull over if you want to rest. It’s not like I really have to worry about what time we reach Alice Springs thanks to all the shit I’ve encountered up until this point”

The taller man gives him an assessing look. “that so?” 

“yeah” 

Shane still unbelieving returns his gaze to the road stretching before them. “i don’t think that will be necessary. I like to drive at night” he paused as he sends Ryan wink. “besides… there’s less traffic at night” 

They continue to travel and Shane musing a hand through his hair as he continues for miles along the road, waiting apprehensively for a moment when everything goes to shit. So caught up in his thoughts was he that he was almost startled by Ryan’s comment hours later. “i, uh. I haven’t properly thanked you for doing this… giving me a lift to Alice Springs that is” Ryan spoke up into the silence between then. 

Turning Shane can’t help the soft as he looks at the other in the lowlight. “no need. I couldn’t just leave you walking along that road forever”

  _forever_ … now that was word that described the hell-hole he’d found himself in. Giving Ryan a lift both helped the smaller man and Shane himself- it allowed him to break the lonely monotony he’d been stuck in for years now. 

“i doubt it would be forever” Ryan jokes and the taller man hums, neither in agreement or disagreement. Before them the  barest hints of dawn was seeping into the deep navy of night above them. The stars slowly disappearing as the smallest rays of the sun appeared on the horizon. 

As Shane drives something in the distance caught his eye. Before them the ’T’ section of the highway splits, one pointing to a town where as the other reds the words ‘Alice Springs’ 

“Alice Springs…” Ryan breathes the words almost reverently in the passenger seat. 

Shane looks at him, wondering what made the other sound much like he did after he’d thought he had managed to break the loop he’s stuck in. Breaking his somber thoughts he looks at the other as the orange light of the indicator illuminating him in slow flashes. “that’s where you wanted to go, right?” Shane queries, suddenly unsure if he’d heard Ryan correctly. 

The smaller man turns, he must have heard the uncertainty in his voice as he continues to sooth him quickly. “yeah. I-i just… didn’t expect we’d get here so uh, quickly” 

Oh the irony of Ryan’s words amused him more than he wanted to admit as he huffing a faint laugh. “yeah. Me neither” he uttered and with hardly a jolt, the car merged from the dusty dirt-road and onto the dark tarred road.

As Shane travels along the highway off from Ghost-Gum Road he spares a look to the smaller man in the passenger seat as the other remained quiet for a long expanse of time. He’s greeted with the sight of Ryan asleep in the passenger seat, his head lolled against the tinted window of the rent-car. 

Fighting the fond expression from his face, Shane turned his gaze back to the road before them. 

Where had the other said he was staying? At a hotel in Alice Springs? He fought the huff from escaping his lips. There had to be at least twenty different hotels in Alice Springs, how the hell would Shane even know which one Ryan was staying at? An ridiculous idea occurred to him as Shane stared down the familiar red-soil road, well, what was the harm in trying it? 

It took around 5 miles until he came across the first hotel in Alice Springs. Pulling into the hotel car park, Shane cut the engine. 

He spared another glance to Ryan sleeping in the passenger seat. He looks so calm and at ease there in the lowlight that Shane couldn’t make himself wake the other up. Heaving a sigh, he get out the car and left Ryan alone in his four-wheeled-drive. 

The hotel was small, with a quaint service desk that was miraculously still open despite the place being a small company. A young woman greeted him at the help-desk, her strawberry blond hair hanging lose around her shoulders. 

Shane sent her a smile as he neared. 

The young woman returned the smile as she sat up straighter in her chair behind the desk. “g’day. The name’s Jay. Is there anything I can help you with?” 

“hello, Jay… I was wondering if you have any rooms booked under the name Ryan Bergara?” 

“Bergara? Hmm, not sure” She turned her attention down towards to the computer before her. There was pause that was filled by the tell-tale sound of typing on a key-board. Jay looked up as she sent him an apologetic look. “i’m sorry sir, but there is no record of that name on our system” 

“ah” Shane sighed, he didn't expect it to be that easy. “sorry for the trouble ma’am” 

She waved him off, a more causal smile gracing her features. “no problem mate, you have a good night” 

“you too” Shane called back as he turned to exit the small hotel. 

Returning back outside, the warm night air met Shane as he walked briskly back towards his rent-car. As he slid into the driver’s seat he sent an assessing glance towards the passenger seat. 

Ryan was still sleeping, head leaning against the window pane. Smiling to himself, Shane once again started up the engine as he continued his quest to find the hotel Ryan had checked into. 

The eucalyptus trees passed by the windows of the rent-car as Shane continued to drive along the dark-grey road. The road ahead of him only faintly tinted orange with a light layer of top-soil that coats the region in a distinctive orange hue.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fyi some scenes might be familiar seeming as they overlap with Ryan's perspective...
> 
> Well, there's one chapter left for this fic. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed... until next time!


	8. the one you wish you knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is Ryan the key to breaking Shane's endless loop on Ghost-Gum Road?

 

It took a few more miles until a neon pink sign caught his eye whilst driving. Pulling into the hotel parking-lot Shane had trouble trying to find a free space. Grumbling he parked in the easiest place he could find, soon switching off the engine as he prepared to try this hotel. 

The warm wooden interior greeted him as he entered the lobby of the hotel. He spotted the service-desk and made a bee-line towards it. Behind the desk sat a young woman, her brown curly hair pulled into a pony-tail. “welcome to the Palms Resort, my name is Kayla. Is there anything I can help you with, sir?” She greeted but there was a tired hint to her words. 

“hey there….” Shane greeted as he rested his hands against the front-desk. “You can help actually. Do you have the name Ryan Bergara booked in for a room?” 

The woman began to type the name into the computer before her, pausing as halfway though typing she look up to clarify the name. “Ryan did you say?” 

“yeah. Ryan Bergara” 

She hums, eyes scanning the screen before her with a faint frown. “it doesn’t like there is anyone under that name” she paused as she looks up to meet his gaze. “would you like to book a room anyway? We have a few available if you would like” 

“er… no thank you” Shane denied awkwardly. “Thanks for the help though” 

“my pleasure” the young woman replied, sending him a wave as he turns to exit the hotel. “Have a safe trip” 

Heading a sigh, Shane walks to his car with a growing weariness. ‘ _4:17_ ’ the light from the dash greeted him as he started up the engine. 

Eyeing Ryan from the corner of his eye, Shane noted how the other stirred at the sound of the engine but thankfully didn’t wake. 

Hints of red were entering the sky, dawn slowly creeping it’s way into the night sky. The environment outside the car were beginning to become more clear as the time slowly moved closer to dawn. Shane hoped he’d find the hotel before 4:30 am, seeming as he didn’t want it to get to late… who knows how much longer his loop is going to last for? 

It wasn’t long until yet another hotel crossed his path. Slowly merging off from the highway Shane entered the hotel car-park, not taking to long to find a free space under the neon light of the hotel. 

Shutting off the engine in a routine that was becoming all to familiar, Shane made his way to the office of the hotel. 

As he entered the building, crisp white tiles meet him as he walked further into the building. An older woman greeted him behind the counter, streaks of grey tinting her jet-black hair. “hello. Are you looking for a room to stay the night?” 

“hey” Shane greeted back as he rubbed the back of his neck absently. “No. I was actually wondering if there was a room already booked for Ryan Bergara?” 

“that does sound familiar” the woman replied as she turned to check the computer before her. “ah! We do. Room 34” she smiles up at him as she hands him the keys. “your friends already payed the room for you, so there’s no need for any payment” 

“oh” Shane blinked as he took the keys from the older woman. “thank you… I’ve parked my car out the front, so I’ll be moving it closer to the room before checking in” 

“no problem sir. You enjoy your stay” she farewelled with a soft smile. 

Nodding, Shane pocketed the keys as he returned the way he came. Walking closer to his rent car Shane was greeted with the sight of Ryan startling in the passenger seat as he returned to slide in the passenger seat. 

“sorry for startling you… I decided to check if this was the hotel you were staying at while you slept” he informed the other, taking in the other’s dark mused hair with faint amusement. 

“oh… you didn’t have to do that” Ryan replied, voice rough from sleep. 

Ignoring how the other’s voice made his mind stray to more inappropriate territory. Shane shrugged holding up the key’s he’d gotten as he tried to dismiss the traitorous thought. “third time lucky… this is the hotel” 

Looking back at the smaller man he’s greeted with clear confusion. “third time lucky? What do you mean?” 

Unable to contain the sheepish look that overcame his features Shane continued in a rush. “i… I might have been checking each hotel we came across to see if it was the one you checked into too” 

Sitting upwards Ryan was undeniably awake no as he all but gaped at the other. “y-you could have just woken me up and asked!” 

Shane felt the blush of embarrassment over come him at the other’s disbelief. “yeah” he muttered awkwardly as he slid into the driver’s seat. “well… I found it now, so, no need to worry about the small details” 

He drove them both to a parking spot closest to Ryan’s hotel and once he pulled into the spot Shane cut the engine. He paused, waiting for Ryan to make the first move. Although he was surprised when he was meet with silence, neither of them moving. Had Ryan… enjoyed his company? No. That was impossible. The odds that he tolerated Shane let alone enjoyed their trip together was slim. So when Ryan spoke next it shocked Shane more than he would ever admit too being.  “uh… walk me to the door?” Ryan proposed into the silence between them. 

Shane turned to him, a disbelieving look overcoming his features before he schooled them. “o-of course… wouldn’t want you to get lost” he managed to tease as they exited the four-wheeled-drive. 

Even walking slowly to the hotel Shane felt that they had reached Ryan’s room too soon. Fighting down his disappointment, Shane mused that it had been good while it lasted. “well… here it is” Shane commented, casting a forlorn gaze to the door despite his better judgment. 

“yeah” the smaller man agreed, hands fiddling with the keys in his hands as the pair stand awkwardly outside the hotel door shrouded in the white glow of the hotel’s lights as once again neither of them moved to leave. “oh!” Ryan breaks the silence between them, drawing Shane attention to his parted lips. “happy new year!” 

Blinking Shane tries to think of something appropriate to say, he had experienced New Years every day for twenty years. It didn’t hold the same weight as it once did thanks to the darn loop he was caught in but for Ryan… well, he’d try to enjoy it. “ah… it is too” he replies after a pause. “i didn’t realise we’d missed it” 

Ryan looks back at him with a thoughtful crease to his brow. “and I didn’t even get a new years kiss” 

‘ _new years kiss_ ’ the words echo in his mind  and Shane couldn’t help the double take he sent the other in disbelief. “no?” He questions, gaze roaming Ryan’s face to try and sense any notion that he’d heard the other incorrectly. 

“nope!” Ryan repeats and before Shane can blink the other reaches upwards to fix the collar of Shane’s button. Gazing downwards the breath rushed out of him as Ryan sent him a a pointed look. “we can’t have that” 

“oh” he mumbled shyly, wanting nothing more than the other to kiss him despite he shouldn’t really expect to. 

“can I kiss you?” Ryan asks bluntly as he caught the other’s eye and it took everything in Shane not to rush into it. 

“yes” Shane breathes the confirmation before slowly leaning down to capture the other’s lips. 

It was nothing like and everything like Shane had wanted it would be. Like a breath of fresh air, rejuvenating him after all those weary years of living the same day over and over. As his lips continue to press chastely agains the other his arms dropped to wrap loosely around Ryan’s waist as they continued to kiss.

 When they finally parted for air, Ryan’s gaze roams over his face. “stay with me?” The words fall sweetly from the other’s lips as a flustered red creeped up his neck. 

Shane looks down at him, can he? After all that he’s been through, will the loop let him have this? A single moment that he can have before he’s ripped back into that endless nightmare of dying over and over again. Swallowing hard against the lump in his throat, Shane manages to reply with a soft murmur of; “as long as I can” before re-capturing the other’s lips in a desperate kiss. 

They only broke apart so that Ryan could unlock the hotel room, hands barely taking the keys out the door before Shane shuts the door behind them. Gently he placed a hand next to Ryan’s head as he bracketed the smaller man against the closed door. “are you sure you want this? I-i don’t expect anything from you” Shane asks seriously as he caught Ryan’s eye. 

Ryan stares at the other for a moment, taking in Shane’s features as if he too were committing them to his memory. “i do… and I know you don’t” he pauses as he sends a smile to the other. “but I want to” he admits as he surges to capture the other in a searing kiss. 

A thrill goes up his spine as Ryan grips the collar of Shane’s floral button up, slowly leading him further into the hotel. 

The other grins up at him flirty as he pulls Shane on-top of himself. Forced to bracket his knees around the other’s hips to not crush him, Shane places his hand beside the other’s face as he leans down to capture the other in a kiss. 

This time, it’s more desperate, a hash press of lips rather than the slow chaste kiss of before. Although there’s something still soft in the way Ryan’s lips respond to his.

 Breaking the kiss he hovers over him and Shane looks down at the tanned man. How had this happened? The loop allowing him to spend this time with the other? He can see the question in those dark brown eyes- for why he’d stopped kissing or why there’s a sadness to his eyes… Although before the other can have the chance to question it Shane drops his head to mouth at Ryan’s neck, trailing opened mouth kisses up the column of his throat. 

It’s unbelievable… how did he find the other? Does he know how much this moment means to Shane? Shane’s not sure, but he sure as hell is going to show the other just how much he’s thankful for this moment.  

“delightful… you’re absolutely delightful” Shane murmurs lowly, voice akin to a reverent prayer. 

Meanwhile, Ryan drags his hands through Shane’s soft hair as Shane begins to kiss his jaw and Shane wonders for a moment if the other can understand those previous unsaid thoughts.

 “says you” Ryan manages to retort, voice nothing more than a breath under Shane’s affection. 

Shane hums as looks down into those dark brown eyes before he surges down to capture the other’s lips in a passionate press of lips. Ryan responds just as strongly as his lips move against Shane, dragging his hands through Shane’s own light hair as Ryan rakes his fingers through it.  

He feels the other shift below him, all but arcing up against Shane’s thighs as they kiss each other breathless. He can’t help but break the kiss, to have a moment to truly see the emotion in Ryan’s eyes- to know this means as much to him as it does to Shane. 

They pause as there eyes met, the seconds dragging in the epicentre of their shared passion. Ryan’s gaze roaming over Shane’s own flushed expression as if he searches for something Shane can’t begin to comprehend to know. 

Whatever it was, it must have been there, for Shane’s almost winded by the way Ryan dragged his head back down to catch the other in a passionate kiss. Biting the other’s lips Shane’s met with the sinful sound of Ryan’s groan. All but chasing the action Shane deepened the kiss with a harsh press of his lips before pulling back to trail his tongue over the stinging flesh he’d previously bit in apology. 

Ryan released his hands from Shane’s hair only to drag his hands beneath the other’s shirt, moving upwards over the planes of muscle over his back. Nearly shivering at the sensation of the other’s hands on his skin Shane pushed down against Ryan, leaving little to no room between them. 

Ryan broke the heated kiss between them, gasping as Shane began to kiss down the heated skin showing from Ryan’s open-collared shirt. As Shane lavished the other in kisses, the sound of Ryan whispering his name occurs to him as he looks up to see Ryan throw his head back on the pillow beneath him. 

“i’m here” Shane soothed, voice like velvet as he brought his lips back up from Ryan’s collar-bone to catch Ryan’s in a searing passionate kiss. His hands splayed down the other ribs, trailing over the bumps and dips before sliding down his sides, creeping closer downwards to grip the other’s hips as he rocks back on his heels. 

A groan escapes Ryan at the loss of Shane’s lips, bringing his own arm upwards to cover his eyes in the crook of his arm as if he couldn't bear to look at Shane a moment longer. Shane’s cant help the delighted laugh that escapes him as he kisses across as much of Ryan’s exposed skin as he can, working his way upwards the band of Ryan’s underwear. 

As he neared Ryan’s face he stared down at the other for a beat. Tears prick his eyes unprecedented as he looks down at the other. He can see the questioning in Ryan’s eyes- he was a curious man, it was no surprise that he could sense something was amiss. 

Something akin to pain flickers in Ryan’s eyes in return as he stares up at Shane’s tearful eyes. Almost as if he too wanted to wipe away the other’s sorrow Ryan surged upwards and caught the other’s in a kiss, clearly now feeling the desperation behind every action the Shane gave him.

Shane in turn he kisses the other, unable to hold back the love he feels. With each gasp against his lips Shane continued to kiss Ryan, hoping to push his own thoughts away for long enough to distract himself enough that he forgets them for a while. Mouthing along Ryan’s collarbone he can see the way all of Ryan’s thoughts scatter- utterly broken with the way Shane lavished him with care just shy of love. Shane kissed Ryan like a man desperate for water, drinking in all of Ryan beneath him.

As their clothes were thrown discarded on the hotel floor, only feeling skin against skin in the late hours of the night all Shane wanted was to kiss the other, to join the other where-ever he want to go. He’d do it gladly, willingly- as long as he gets to stay by Ryan’s side.  

So he closed his eyes at the sensation of the other’s kiss and for a moment he pretended that it would happen. 

That this moment would last… 

 

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

  
****

The plush mattress beneath him and the sensation of Ryan tucked under his arms blissfully asleep, was the situation that met Shane in the early hours of dawn.  

Shane himself was wide-awake unable to bare the thought of closing his eyes and to sleep beside the other as much as he wants to. For he doesn’t want it to end- this moment- this _time_ he’s shared with Ryan. 

In the early light of the hotel room he’s never wanted the loop-cycle to end so badly as he does now. 

His mind ticks as the minutes pass over. It was inevitable that Ryan would wake to find him gone in the morning and the thought creates a stab of pain in his heart. He’d have to write a note, try to explain to the other why he’s gone. His thoughts halt in their frantic ideas. No. It wouldn’t be enough. 

Laying there he hears the sound of Ryan’s soft snores and the thought dawns on him. Ryan’s rent car… Shane was the only one besides Ryan who knew where it was. Perhaps if he was quick enough he could make it there just in time to fix whatever was wrong with the car. Anything could be wrong with the vehicle but he’d have to make it work. 

Slowly he reluctantly peeled Ryan’s arms from their clinging position around his torso. Leaving the other alone in the plush bed as Shane turned to tug on the closest clothes he could find. Pulling on his jeans and white t-shirt, Shane deciding to leave his button where it was- discarded on the hotel floor. 

There was no time to waste, he’d have to be quick if he wants his plan to work. 

Striding purposefully towards the hotel door, he spares himself a last look to Ryan still asleep in the bed. Taking in how the other’s dark hair was mused and how his face was illuminated from the light between the gaps of the hotel blinds. 

Shane’s hand lands on the door knob as he turns his head away from the tempting sight. If he didn’t leave now he feared he never would, he would never leave the other’s side unless the loop ripped him from the other. 

Fighting the urge to squeeze his eyes shut to block out the peaceful image he opened the door as quietly as he could. 

It was now or never…. 

 

////////////////////////////////////

 

He didn’t expect to once again drive along Ghost Gum Road, he wouldn’t have, but he needed to do this _one_ thing for Ryan.

The sky was red above him, the dark of night fading away. It was a new dawn, a new day… god. How long had it been since he’d seen the break of day? He wasn’t sure… all he did know was that he needed to get this done. 

The clock on his dash continued to tick closer and closer to 6:00am and it generated a sense of anxiety like he was racing against something he couldn’t even comprehend to beat. Hands tightening on the wheel, Shane kept his eyes focused on the under-bush lining the road. 

‘ _How far had Ryan walked?_ ’ He pondered as his car slowly wound it’s way along the dusty soil. 

He scanned the underbrush, spotting a stray kangaroo staring back at him. Figures… it was day-break after all and kangaroos loved to travel in the early morning and late afternoon. 

Heaving a sigh he traveled along that familiar road and around two miles of driving Shane passed another car travelling on the other side of the road. The sight of the shining silver paint of the other car sent a stab of loss through him. Eyes darting downwards to the dash in rising tension, he noted it was ‘ _5:25am’._

Cursing aloud Shane scowled at a particularly dense patch of plants. Although, something reflected under the beam of his head-lights that caused him a pause in stunned disbelief. Without thinking about it to much, Shane merged off from the highway and into the small alcove that caught his eye. 

All but scrambling from his driver’s seat, Shane wound his way towards the thick underbrush. This close, as he parted the reed-like plants he’s greeted with an abandoned car. 

A laugh escapes him, as he stares at the thing. “fucking unbelievable” he utters as he reaches for the phone in his pocket with an idea. 

Bringing the technology forwards he stares up at the phone before he begins to dial. “let’s get this sorted” he murmurs to himself, bringing the phone to his ear he’s met with the as tell-tale dial sounds rings in his ear. 

 

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

 Shane Madej watched as the repair-man finished fixing Ryan’s rent car, crawling out from underneath the car he walks closer to talk to Shane over the issue. 

“it only needed a replaced battery… the thing was completely drained” the older man informed, holding the empty case of the car battery in his hand. He looks towards the abandoned rent-car with an thoughtful look. “thanks for calling about the broken down car. This things was so well hidden i’m honestly surprised you spotted it amongst all the native vegetation” 

For a beat they both look at the rent-car before Shane replied. “i’m just as surprised as you” Shane mused with faint amusement as he watched the mechanic walk back towards his own car. 

“i’ll try to make contact with the company who owns the rent-car. If I tell them the number plate they should be able to find out who’s rented the thing” 

Shane nodded before a thought occurred to him. “wait- do you have a pen and paper I could borrow?” 

The old mechanic sent him a quizzical expression but handed over the items he requested without much hassle. “keep the pen, kid… I can always get a new one from work” he replies with a cheerful grin as he enters his car. 

Sending the man a wave as he pulled out from the alcove hidden along Ghost-Gum Road. His hand falls from its wave the moment the mechanic and his car was out of sight. The scrappy paper is held tightly in his hand, along with the shiny pen. 

Striding forwards he comes to stand before the bonnet of Ryan’s rent car. Turning to the paper and pen in his hands, he places the paper agains the metal for leverage as he scratches out the cipher letters; ‘ _F U N A R - Z N Q R W_ ‘. He paused looking down at his handy work with bitter relief. He didn’t trust writing his name normally, fearing that the name wouldn’t appear once his loop reset. Tucking the note under the windscreen wiper he stands back to admire his word yet again and the relief that fills him is unmeasurable. He had done it… regardless of all the odds he had achieved it. 

His mind turns forlornly to Ryan laying alone in the hotel room for he would wake there, wondering why Shane had left him there alone without even a goodbye. His heart gives a painful tug in his chest, ‘ _if only things were different… maybe we could have been together_ ’ he muses and he can picture it now, waking up each morning with the soft light highlighting the other’s tanned face, his dark hair a-mess from sleep. He would see that soft sleep grin directed at him, those dark eyes looking into his soul with a sleepy greeting. 

A sigh rushed from him as he stands on the red-soil road, sky above him just beginning to turn pink above him as his eyes slipping closed with tired relief. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slowly he re-opens them… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sky is dark above him, the moon hung low on the horizon before his rent-car. His chest feels hollow as his gaze flickers to the dashboard before him ‘ _3:33_ ’ the red-numbers seared into his eyelids. 

Almost gasping with the pain in his chest he longs for the stranger who had impacted his life so minutely but so, so much. He had done it? Hadn’t he? He had helped Ryan, helped him by fixing his rent car, by spending time with him, by giving him a lift to Alice Springs… it didn’t feel like it was enough but it had to be for he was here, again, in the never ending loop. 

Perhaps the loops had restarted because he’d returned back to Ghost-Gum Road? Shane wasn’t sure but it sure sounded plausible. It was the only situation other than closing his eyes that caused him to return to the loop, nothing else had generated the loop to restart. 

During his musing something glinting on his dashboard caught his attention. Eyes dropping he stares questioning at the pen the mechanic had given him, the casing glinting in the moonlight… that was new, he had never had something solid other than his memories of a loop. 

He welcomed it, if only to remind him that the time with Ryan was real and not some fantasy. He wondered for a moment what the other was doing and if he knew what Shane had done… It was wishful thinking, it didn’t matter now, he was once again looped into an endless drive. 

Gaze sliding in dejection from the dash he looks numbly towards the stretch of road before him he stares at the familiar rich-red soil of Ghost-Gum Road. 

He looked up just in time to see the Kangaroo come into view before him—

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, poor Shane :(   
> Why do I always treat him so badly in my fics? Idk… it just happens. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this fic “ubi mors sequitur (when death follows)” 
> 
> Until Next time!


End file.
